Marathon Pundit: Buffett bashing: Crony capitalism and debunking the myth about his secretary

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Buffett bashing: Crony capitalism and debunking the myth about his secretary

BNSF coal trail, Colorado plains

Despite President Obama's denial of the jobs-creating Keystone XL pipeline, some of that oil will likely make its way south to the United States--by rail. That option will be more expensive. One of the beneficiaries will be the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the majority owner of that line is Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway. The Omaha billionaire is a big supporter of President Obama.

Buffett and Obama have been bemoaning that the billionaire's secretary (By the way, do you really think he has just one?) pays a higher tax rate than Buffett.

Not so fast, says AP:

President Barack Obama says he wants to make sure millionaires are taxed at higher rates than their secretaries. The data say they already are.

"Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it," Obama said as he announced his deficit-reduction plan this week. "It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million."

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.

The 10 percent of households with the highest incomes pay more than half of all federal taxes. They pay more than 70 percent of federal income taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office.