Fact Check Pulverizes Obama's Claim About Buffett

Fact Check Pulverizes Obama’s Claim About Buffett’s Secretary
Posted on September 20, 2011 by Conservative Byte

President Barack Obama makes it sound as if there are millionaires all over America paying taxes at lower rates than their secretaries.

“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.

http://conservativebyte.com/2011/09/fact-checked-obama-are-the-rich-really-taxed-less-than-secretaries/

"Real Data Draws Crickets" Story at 10:00!

How any person can listen to Obama twist and spin the truth and come away with any respect for this man is beyond me.

Even the lefties gotta be apprehensive about this- if they have any conscience at all.

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

(source: Warren Buffett's editorial in the NYT)

I'm not really trying to figure out how his rate became so low ---- I'm wondering how their rates got to be so high........

Doing the math on my paycheck - I'm nowhere near any of his staff.

His staff is apparently very well compensated.

bailey bud wrote:

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

(source: Warren Buffett's editorial in the NYT)

I'm not really trying to figure out how his rate became so low ---- I'm wondering how their rates got to be so high........

Doing the math on my paycheck - I'm nowhere near any of his staff.

I'm sure if he pays a high enough salary, those taxes probably are realistic....I never heard what this poor deprived secretary actually makes annually. Once the 20 people in his office are able to muster up enough pennies to make investments, I'm sure they would also think it fair to only pay 15% on dividend income investments they made with already taxed income.

Warren Buffett is in a tiny tiny subset of the richest of the richest. He can afford every expert available to take every advantage of our tax code. He has literally billions of dollars to divert into this or that tax sheltered investment- and it would not suprise me if his tax rate was only 17.4%.

However- he does not represent the wealthy- he is at the top 1 tenth of 1% of the wealthy. And by the way, there is nothing preventing him from paying a larger percentage of his money in taxes, except for maybe his high priced accountant's. He takes every tax deduction and shelter available to him and then runs his mouth about the rich not being taxed enough.

I guess he would prefer to be forced to pay more - than to give it up on his own.

I would support a 95% tax rate for Warren Buffett only taking into account his propensity to run his mouth about being taxed too little- there see- I'm OK with taxing THIS rich guy!

BearMtnHIB wrote: Warren Buffett is in a tiny tiny subset of the richest of the richest. He can afford every expert available to take every advantage of our tax code. He has literally billions of dollars to divert into this or that tax sheltered investment- and it would not suprise me if his tax rate was only 17.4%.

However- he does not represent the wealthy- he is at the top 1 tenth of 1% of the wealthy. And by the way, there is nothing preventing him from paying a larger percentage of his money in taxes, except for maybe his high priced accountant's. He takes every tax deduction and shelter available to him and then runs his mouth about the rich not being taxed enough.

I guess he would prefer to be forced to pay more - than to give it up on his own.

I would support a 95% tax rate for Warren Buffett only taking into account his propensity to run his mouth about being taxed too little- there see- I'm OK with taxing THIS rich guy!

But once again WB gives billions to the Bill Gates foundation willingly and they do good works versus the Feds taking the money by force and spending it how the lobbyists and special interests decide. How would you prefer your money to be spent?

Yes- right now he gets to give his money to the Gates foundation- why not just send it in to the government?

That's what he appears to want.

I guess I'll have to read his full article, but his numbers make no sense at all. It's impossible to pay 41% since the top tax bracket is 35%. And you'd have to make millions to even pay 33% after deductions. The only thing I can think of is he's either making it up, or they all owe back taxes.

The 17% he claims he paid is more reasonable. The top 1% of income earners pay on average about 19% after deductions, exemptions, credits, etc.

And Nmysys, you might want to read the other threads here as this is the second thread you've started today that's already been discussed (the other was the military retirement increase).