Is anyone else getting sick and tired of hearing about Warren Buffett's secretary? Obviously Buffett himself and President Barack Obama are not. They both love to cite the misleading claim that she pays a higher tax rate than Buffett. And they neglect to mention that her salary must be well north of $200K in order for her to fall into the 35 percent tax bracket. But do you think any of our inept old media hacks have the gumption or presence of mind to even inquire what her salary is? Hardly.
Obama has gone so overboard he actually invited the secretary, Debbie Bosanek, to serve as a stage prop during Tuesday night's State of the Union address. (By the way, why are we referring to her as a secretary? Isn't that as outmoded as "stewardess" rather than flight attendant? These days, the proper term is "administrative assistant.")
But let's cut to the chase: This is a case of comparing apples to oranges. Remember that the person paying a capital gains tax has already been taxed on his original investment money. He paid income, Medicare and social security taxes on the wages he earned. When stocks he owned appreciated in value, the corporate tax kicked in. And any dividends earned were taxed as well.
Aside from all that, let's remember that the top 10 percent of wage earners pay 70 percent of the tax revenues. And it's been proven time and again that conservatives give much more money to charity than liberals. Romney gave $7 million to charities over a two-year period. By contrast, Sen. John Kerry was a notorious tightwad when it came to charitable contributions (at least until he married into the uber-rich Heinz clan). Kerry’s 1991–1995 charitable contributions were $0, $820, $175, $2039, and $0.
This is the type of fact our woeful media neglects to report, because it simply doesn't jibe with their bash the rich narrative. And the economic illiteracy of millions of Americans who buy lock, stock and barrel the line about Warren Buffett's secretary is the type of ignorance that just might get Barack Obama re-elected and do grave damage to our republic.
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