Words, words, words...half truths can be more harmful than outright lies when relevant facts are eliminated. What about the percentage of overall income lower and middle class workers pay in social security payroll taxes? What about the enormous amount of tax income lost when wealthy citizens are granted tax loopholes to squirrel their money overseas?

Forget this is an example of very poor right-wing propaganda. As journalism, this fails due to confused points, poor writing and weasel words. When one is finished, the reaction is: "what the Hell did I just read?" Even someone as dishonest as this writer cannot obscure what everyone knows to be fact: THE RICH PAY LESS-TO NO TAXES! Period. And thus we're stuck with maybe yes, but also maybe no. Or maybe who knows?. Don't waste your time on this, unless you need a primer on how to do propaganda badly.

No. It's bad arithmetic and bad economics masquerading as fact. It's poorly and confusingly written. There is a constant confusion of payroll taxes with income taxes, no mention of the payroll tax cap, and the basic economic truth that all payroll taxes are paid by the employee, whether or not the employer is charged with half the cost. All employee costs are carried on the employer's books and come out of what the employer is willing to pay an employee. Thus, everybody making a salary of $106,00 (the Social Security cap) is thus taxed at least the approximately 15% that payroll taxes come to on the full amount of their salary.

It's a polemic; beginning with a straw man, implying that Obama said that all millionaires pay less taxes than their secretaries; going on to say that "only" 1470 people with over $1 million income paid zero income taxes (!!), which of course is the exact kind of thing Obama would like to eliminate; muddying the waters by informing us that lots of "low and medium income households" also pay zero taxes (a family of two adults with two or more dependents making $50,000 or less) as if that were some sort of counterbalance to the millionaires mentioned; admitting that "for high-income families and individuals, investment income is often taxed at a lower rate than wages" (i.e. for wages greater than $34,500) but attempting to ... More »

A good example how politicians use apples and oranges comparisons. IN this case, The president is comparing Buffett who pays capital gains tax and his secretary who pays income tax and social security tax and medicare tax. If Buffett really wanted to pay more tax, he would take a paycheck and then he would pay substantially more than his Secretary. BTW Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway owes about 1 billion in back taxes. His statements about wanting to pay higher tax is dishonest. Anyone can simply check the box to take out additional sums of money to reduce the national debt. It is right there on the tax form. I suggest the rich, not wait until Congress changes the tax code, and just check the box and allow pay additional ... More »