By now, you have surely heard that Warren Buffett does not pays income taxes at a rate lower than his secretary. President Obama uses that statistic over and over again in his speeches. Obama even had the secretary sitting next to Michelle Obama at the State of the Union address two nights ago. Buffett's secretary is surely a victim of the evil and "unfair" tax code, someone who must be protected by Obama!
Now comes word about what Buffett's secretary actually earns. ABC News reports the following which was released by the White House press office: "Bosanek [the secretary] pays a tax rate of 35.8 percent of income, while Buffett pays a rate at 17.4 percent." In an interview, the secretary says she is an average citizen.
Think about this! The highest marginal federal income tax rate is 35% and that only starts at $380,000 of income. Even with $380,000 of income, however, the tax rate as a percent of income is only about 28.5% due to the fact that for the first income earned, the rates are much lower. Now the White House and ABC must be including the payroll tax for social security as well or there would be no way for the rate to be above 35%. The payroll tax is 4.3% on the first $100,000 or so of income. If you do the math, you come to one very interesting conclusion. In order for Buffett's secretary to pay 35.8% of her income in taxes which is what the White House says, she must earn well in excess of $400,000 per year. That puts her squarely in the group whose taxes Obama wants to raise. It makes her part of the so-called 1%. It makes her one of those "millionaires and billionaires" that Obama is always talking about.
So the poor "victim" whose plight is part of the Obama mantra is super-rich. Sure, she doesn't earn in a year what Buffett does, but nearly every American would gladly have her income instead of their own. And she is one of those people who Obama says do not pay their fair share. Obama wants to RAISE her taxes.
WHAT A JOKE!!
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