Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

AP fact check: Secretaries don’t pay more taxes than their bosses (Paging Warren Buffet)
Hotair ^ | 09/19/2011 | Ed Morrisey

Posted on 09/20/2011 9:37:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Let's hope that Warren Buffet is better at managing funds than he is at tax policy. After Buffett complained that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does, Barack Obama decided to call his new class-warfare taxes “the Buffett Rule” and emphasize that he wants to make taxes more “fair.” But was Buffett right? According to an AP fact check — and just about every ounce of common sense that exists outside of the class-warfare fever swamps of the White House these days — not at all:

“Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires,” Obama said Monday. “That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that.”

The data tell a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.

There may be individual millionaires who pay taxes at rates lower than middle-income workers. In 2009, 1,470 households filed tax returns with incomes above $1 million yet paid no federal income tax, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That, however, was less than 1 percent of the nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1 million.

Even when talking rates rather than aggregate payments, the claims made by Buffett and Obama are nothing more than an urban legend:

This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent.

That has been true ever since the US went to a progressive income tax. It was true decades ago, it was true a few years ago, and it remains true today. Those with higher incomes pay more taxes at higher rates that those with lower incomes. So unless Buffett’s paying his secretary a million dollars a year, the notion that we’re burying secretaries in higher taxes while letting millionaires and billionaires off the hook is flat-out false.

Buffett should know better than to make that kind of claim without checking his facts first, but no one elected Buffett to be in charge of anything, either. The President of the United States has vast resources at his command to get the facts straight before speaking to the American people, especially before pushing a divisive and destructive policy like his tax plan with class-warfare rhetoric designed to gin up demand for government to start seizing more from the successful than they already do. Either Obama doesn’t bother to do his homework, or he doesn’t care whether he’s passing along myths rather than facts.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: buffett; buffettrule; factcheck; rich; secretaries; taxes; warrenbuffet; warrenbuffett; wiltedbuffoon
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

1 posted on 09/20/2011 9:37:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I find it interesting that the media is now interested in fact checking Obama. I guess they have come to the realization that he is taking progressives down with him. It will not be hard to sink him as about everything he says is based on lies.


2 posted on 09/20/2011 9:41:55 AM PDT by Parley Baer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Let's repeat the words of Joe Wilson to Hussein:

YOU LIE!

3 posted on 09/20/2011 9:42:52 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
The problem with the Buffet anecdote is that the 15% that investors earn from dividends and capital gains are earnings after the corporation has already paid the 35% corporate tax. So the actual tax rate these investors are paying is more like 45%.

On the other hand, money paid to secretaries comes from pre-tax earnings, so that money is not double taxed.
4 posted on 09/20/2011 9:43:12 AM PDT by arista
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Paging Nancy Pelosi...


5 posted on 09/20/2011 9:43:55 AM PDT by therightliveswithus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Mr. Buffett:
Go back to singing "Margarittaville"
You done got caught lying about taxes.
6 posted on 09/20/2011 9:45:02 AM PDT by DeaconRed (Cold War Veteran. . . . US Army Security Agency 1964-1968)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Parley Baer

Tax the billionaires! BIG TIME! Give ‘em what they are asking for and much more! Leave eneryone else alone.


7 posted on 09/20/2011 9:45:18 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Voter#537
RE: Go back to singing "Margarittaville"

At least this Millionaire I know isn't complaining that he isn't paying enough taxes...

8 posted on 09/20/2011 9:51:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
"The President of the United States has vast resources at his command to get the facts straight before speaking to the American people, ..."

Com'on Ed!!! Like I said this morning - ZERO IS USING ALINKSY/SATAN TECHNIQUES TO SPEAK A LIE AS THE TRUTH UNTIL IT IS COMMON BELIEF!!

Stop just calling him on the substance but call him on the gall to repeatedly play the con!!!

It's not that 'he doesn't care...' - it's HIS PURPOSED GOAL!
9 posted on 09/20/2011 10:13:39 AM PDT by time4good
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
There is a line on your tax form that allows someone to pay extra money on their taxes to lower the nation's debt. I wondered how many libs have used that option and if the money sent in really goes to lower the debt or is it spent on a Charles Rangle Library
10 posted on 09/20/2011 10:14:08 AM PDT by lucky american (I'm tired.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: time4good

The more people are vocal about this and the more vocal people say this - that ZERO PLAYS THE CON, then people will start to listen to ZERO like we all do here - with suspicion and doubt. Let’s play the rules back on him!


11 posted on 09/20/2011 10:16:43 AM PDT by time4good
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Americans KNOW that this claim is specious. What Obama DIDN’T do was anything about the ways in which the demonRAT “party of rich” hides its money from the IRS, all the ways that they protect their wealth, not usually offered to the ordinary members of the middle class.

Never fear, Bambi, some of us know EXACTLY what you are doing, and it won’t help you.


12 posted on 09/20/2011 10:29:32 AM PDT by 13Sisters76 ("It is amazing how many people mistake a certain hip snideness for sophistication. " Thos. Sowell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: aflaak

ping


13 posted on 09/20/2011 10:37:27 AM PDT by r-q-tek86 ("It doesn't matter how smart you are if you don't stop and think" - Dr. Sowell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Warren Buffett is the Tawana Brawley of Class Warfare!!


14 posted on 09/20/2011 11:01:18 AM PDT by Ann Archy ( ABORTION...the HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SaraJohnson

Why do you or anyone else deserve their money?

You are pretty stupid if you want to take away their money, because it is your money that they are really after and they will take it on the next round.

Have you ever heard of the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax)? If you haven’t paid this tax yet (a 2nd income tax system established in 1969 to tax 158 millionaries) you probably will soon.

They are really after the 49% of taxpayers who pay no income tax. (but they won’t tell you that.) The tax on billionaries will only pay for federal spending for about a week (estimate). There are only 1100 billionaries. Who is next?

If you want to control the federal government, then you need to control and stop the federal spending, not raising taxes.


15 posted on 09/20/2011 11:22:59 AM PDT by ADSUM (Democracy works when citizens get involved and keep government honest.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Parley Baer
I find it interesting that the media is now interested in fact checking Obama.

Me, too. Too bad they are about four or five years too late.

I guess they have come to the realization that he is taking progressives down with him.

That is the only thing that would motivate them to turn on him. It is hard to imagine, but I guess they have decided he is too incompetent to further their cause. However, it is not just him. Those behind him are the movers and shakers. He is just the one in the position of authority.

It will not be hard to sink him as about everything he says is based on lies.

Correct. Once the ones with the power, that would be the media, decide to do him in it will be easy. They just have to be careful not to cripple themselves and their agenda in the process.

16 posted on 09/20/2011 11:29:44 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Voter#537
Warren Buffet is just trying to secure his reputation for future generations. Just like the oligarchs of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s (oil, newspaper, and railroad barons).

Those people spent their entire lives building their empires at the expense of the little people, screwing everybody that got in their way. Ever see the movie “There Will Be Blood”? That wasn't just typical 100 years ago, it is still typical today. Why the hell did Warren Buffet and Bill Gates wait so damn long to donate 50% of their wealth to charity? Hell, they are both multi-billionaires and had accumulated so much wealth that it would be impossible for their grandchildren’s grandchildren’s grandchildren to spend it all in one lifetime.

Look at J. Paul Getty. That asshat raped and destroyed countless lives in his quest to become a mega-millionaire and waited until his death to bequeath his fortune to a museum. He didn't leave any money to charity. Nope, just built a massive museum and stipulated that his millions and billions of dollars go to acquiring artwork. No soup kitchens, no homeless shelters, no scholarship funds. Just friggin’ artwork.

Warren Buffet can shove it where the sun don't shine. What a maroon.

17 posted on 09/20/2011 12:02:19 PM PDT by Ernie Kaputnik ((It's a mad, mad, mad world.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

the AP is suddenly doing a lot of fact-checking of Obama I notice


18 posted on 09/20/2011 12:09:23 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This whole “tax the bejeesus out of the rich” is Obama at his demagogic worst...or best depending on how you look at it. He knows the facts, he’s just trying to stir up the base.


19 posted on 09/20/2011 1:03:38 PM PDT by driftless2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

As a proud Katharine Gibbs certificate holder and really good secretary, I thought that secretaries are a thing of the past. PC terms: Executive Assistant, Executive Admin . . .
Is anyone looking to hire a real secretary? I’m available. Northern VA.


20 posted on 09/20/2011 3:28:45 PM PDT by HotKat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson