AP fact-checks Obama: Secretaries do NOT pay a higher tax rate than billionaires. From the AP article: “This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1% of their income in federal taxes, ….between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15%, …between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5%… between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7%.” Well, to paraphrase candidate Obama in 2008, “It’s not about revenue, it’s about campaign bullcrap.”
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
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It was a purposeful deception. If your earnings come strictly from investment income (stocks, etc) you pay the capital gains tax of 15% provided you held the investment for at least one year, it's higher if held for less time.
Working folks pay taxes based on their level of income, from zero to 29%.
Capital gains come from money that has already been taxed, so there was a lower tax instituted to encourage investment. If capital gains were taxed at the same rate as income, nobody would invest in the markets/business.
You also pay capital gains when you sell your house. Does anyone want to pay 29% or more on that money?
I'm sure Obama and Buffet just "misspoke". Just like how his mom died because she was denied health care insurance...
The headline could just have rightly read: "Any American with even half a lick of sense fact-checks Obama: Secretaries do NOT pay a higher tax rate than billionaires."
And you gotta believe it just KILLED the AP to have to admit this for the president they've provided so much cover.
Obama's whole life has been affirmative political correctnest