Obama tax lies, Jobs speech, Warren Buffett hypocrisy, Tax Policy Center 46 percent pay no federal income taxes
From the Chicago Tribune September 20, 2011.
“Data: The rich actually do pay more taxes”
“President Barack Obama makes it sound as if there are millionaires all
over America paying taxes at lower rates than their secretaries.
“Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires
and billionaires,” Obama said Monday. “That’s pretty straightforward.
It’s hard to argue against that.”
The data tell a different story. 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.
There may be individual millionaires who pay taxes at rates lower than
middle-income workers. In 2009, 1,470 households filed tax returns
with incomes above $1 million yet paid no federal income tax,
according to the Internal Revenue Service. That, however, was less
than 1 percent of the nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1
million.
In his White House address Monday, Obama called on Congress to
increase taxes by $1.5 trillion as part of a 10-year deficit reduction
package totaling more than $3 trillion. He proposed that Congress
overhaul the tax code and impose what he called the “Buffett rule,”
named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
The rule says, “People making more than $1 million a year should not
pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class
families pay.”
“Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than
Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it,” Obama said. “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.”
Buffett wrote in a recent piece for The New York Times that the tax
rate he paid last year was lower than that paid by any of the other 20
people in his office.
This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average
of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income
taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a
Washington think tank.”
“The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46 percent of households, mostly
low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes
this year. Most, however, will pay other taxes, including Social
Security payroll taxes.”
Read more:
Hypocrisy from Obama and Warren Buffett.
From The Blaze August 30, 2011.
“How Much is Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Back-Tax Bill Exactly? About $1 Billion”
“On Monday, The Blaze reported that Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, owes back taxes dating to 2002. The news is significant because in a recent op-ed column for the New York Times, Buffett, one of President Obama’s staunchest supporters, stated that, to now, the “super wealthy” have been coddled and deserve to be taxed at an even higher rate than they currently are.
When Buffett made his revelation earlier in the month, most assumed his company was up-t0-date on its taxes. That assumption has turned out to be incorrect, however — and to a substantial degree perhaps.
According to Berkshire’s 2010 annual report, the company has been in a near decade-long struggle with the IRS over its own taxes. Using public documents, a certified public accountant detailed Berkshire’s tax problems to Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, revealing the damage could be close to $1 billion. Netright Daily adds:
According to page 56 of the company report, “At December 31, 2010… net unrecognized tax benefits were $1,005 million”, or about $1 billion. McCarty explained, “Unrecognized tax benefits represent the company’s potential future obligation to the IRS and other taxing authorities. They have to be recorded in the company’s financial statements.”
He added, “The notation means that Berkshire Hathaway’s own auditors have probably said that $1 billion is more likely than not owed to the government.”
$1 billion is not an insignificant chunk of change, even for Buffett, representing about 0.2 percent of the company’s $372 billion in total assets.
The annual report goes on to state: “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.””
“Ironic, isn’t it? When Warren Buffett penned that op-ed demanding he be taxed more, we assumed that meant he had actually paid his taxes. Not quite the case. Buffett’s famed company, Berkshire Hathaway, owes taxes that are nearly a decade old.”
Read more:
Citizen WElls 
Austan Goolsbee Obama chief economic adviser leaving, Citizen Wells commenters on small business problems, Obama economic failures
Austan Goolsbee Obama chief economic adviser leaving, Citizen Wells commenters on small business problems, Obama economic failures
“the Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones.”…George Orwell, “1984″
“Another liberal economic nut ‘quits’ his job to go back to teaching, because the economy isn’t better. This is nothing more than a manager firing his advisors because he made a horrible decision, based upon his beliefs and their recommendations. Sadly, it’s not like these ‘economic advisors’ get held accountable for poor decision making process and economic policies. No, they get to go back to their ‘teaching jobs’ so they can tell students how great they are and how it was all somebody else’s fault.”…commenter pete
“It’s easy to see why some businesses hire undocumented workers to avoid the tax burden. Or worse yet they just pick up stakes and move out of the country.
And now obamacare will tax us more? Our government’s over taxation and interference has caused small businesses to be reluctant to hire more employees. Under the Obama regime we’ll see businesses leaving the country droves. It is no wonder that our country’s economy is on a downward spiral”….commenter Jonah
Reported on Citizen Wells this morning.
“Most of the key economic indicators have worsened recently, the unemployment rate is back over 9 percent and there is increasing mention of the spectre of a depression.
From the Chicago Tribune June 6, 2011.
“Top Obama economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, will quit to return to University of Chicago”
“Austan Goolsbee, President Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser, is leaving the administration and returning to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to teach.
The announcement from the White House late Monday comes at a time when the U.S. unemployment rate is back above 9 percent, speculation is growing that the nation may be at risk of dipping back into a recession and amid intense political debate over whether to extend the nation’s debt ceiling,
Goolsbee began advising Obama before his election as president and has become the administration’s chief public spokesman on the economy. He has headed the White House Council of Economic Advisers for the past nine months. On ABC’s “This Week” program Sunday, Goolsbee emphasized that the administration had made progress on employment since the depths of the Great Recession and said “don’t make too much of any one jobs report.”
May’s unemployment rate, released last week, climbed to 9.1 percent. The stock market has been sliding recently on concerns about a slowing economy in the U.S. and globally.
Obama said in a statement, “Since I first ran for the U.S. Senate, Austan has been a close friend and one of my most trusted advisers. Over the past several years, he has helped steer our country out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”””
The following comments placed on that article are worthy of publishing:
Commenter pete:
CW,
Do you think that anyone has seen through the game. Another liberal economic nut ‘quits’ his job to go back to teaching, because the economy isn’t better. This is nothing more than a manager firing his advisors because he made a horrible decision, based upon his beliefs and their recommendations. Sadly, it’s not like these ‘economic advisors’ get held accountable for poor decision making process and economic policies. No, they get to go back to their ‘teaching jobs’ so they can tell students how great they are and how it was all somebody else’s fault.
From a small business perspective the problems are easy to see. Foremost, you have a bunch of idiots making the hiring of new employees and economic growth very risky. Obamacare, new regulations, unable to get loans and credit, inflation of goods costs, and bear marketplace all conspire to strike fear into employers. Second, customers are AFRAID. About 1/3 of americans see the Constitution (and rule of law) evaporating before their eyes for the first time in history, and they fear for the future. About 1/3 of Customers are oblivious to the politics, but have no jobs or real income and are underwater on their houses. About 1/3 are starting to believe that the government could default on SS and Medicare/Caid, as well as other entitlements which they are dependent upon. These factors lead to a loss of Consumer Confidence, and fewer and fewer exchanges, jobs, and tax revenue. By the way, even IF you succeed now, and make more than 250k in a year, create jobs, and help your local community, you will be saddled with 71% income tax next year. REALLY! 71%, you might as well make less and smell the roses, send some of your employees home.
What I’m trying to say, while out in the trenches of the small business world, is that Jimmy Carter II on Steroids, Barack Obama (or whatever his/her name is) is bad for small business. Small Business is the engine that runs the American Economy, and it hurting. The government bailouts…..none was targeted to growth of small business or small industry. The new regs and obamacare attack all industry , but are especially hard for small business to cope with because of limited resources.
Ronald Reagan understood america and small business contribution. His economics weren’t trickle down as much as they were designed to help the middle class businessman, the Job creator, to succeed. Obama economics are pumping trillions to the Bankers and the GM/GE of the world, which is truly a trickle down economics. Worse yet, that money just ends up overseas in the ‘global economy’ with job creation elsewhere.
Obama’s economics have struck at the heart of America by removing MIDDLE CLASS JOBS and therefore, the middle class. The liberals, whom pride themselves supposedly helping the poor and middle class, are hypocrites, as their policies actually make it worse for these people by depriving them of needed small business jobs and manufacturing. While people will start to get used to the ‘new economy’ of 8-12% unemployement, the government is going to run out of ‘other peoples money’ soon, and the other shoe is going to drop.
What I written above I believe with my very core, and since it is critical of Obama and his Fascist/Elitist policies, I suppose that makes me a racist. I have sensed an increase in attacks from the left wing nuts as the reality falls upon them that the ‘annointed one’ and his cronies are a lot of hot air and not of true real life tested ideas. Just like socialism I might add, lots of ‘utopia promised’ followed by lots of misery and failure.
Keyensian ecomomics doesn’t work when you don’t have a base of production and small business. Keyensian economics doesn’t work when the Government is not a moderator, but becomes the unchecked new predator (competing for business resources) in a delicate system of customer and business. The ‘brilliant’ economists that have ‘quit’ the Obama economic team obviously not as smart as they thought they were….perhaps we should call Obama’s Economics the ‘Audacity of Arrogance with Ignorance implemented with Inexperience’.
Sorry, done ranting for the morning, I gotta go back to work to try to keep my employees with jobs and pay for other peoples mortages.
Pete”
Commenter Jonah:
“Pete,
Our family has owned a business for almost 40 years. I started paying the bills for the business about 7 years ago and I was alarmed to learn the cost to run a business.
OUR SMALL BUSINESSES PAYS:
FEDERAL INCOME TAX
STATE INCOME TAX
FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT TAX
STATE UNEMPLOYMENT TAX
7% SOCIAL SECURITY TAX FOR EMPLOYEES
(this is in addition to the 7% the employee gives the government)
PROPERTY TAX
PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX
UTILITY TAXES ON GAS, ELECTRIC, AND PHONE
GASOLINE TAX
SALES TAX TO THE STATE FOR EVERYTHING WE SELL
APROXIMATELY 7% SALES TAX ON EVERYTHING WE BUY
PLUS WE PAY
MEDICAL INSURANCE
AUTO INSURANCE
PROPERTY INSURANCE
LIABILITY INSURANCE
WORKMAN’S COMP
VARIOUS LICENSES AND PERMITS
I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things.
THE GOVERNMENT GETS MORE OF OUR MONEY THAN WE DO!
It’s easy to see why some businesses hire undocumented workers to avoid the tax burden. Or worse yet they just pick up stakes and move out of the country.
And now obamacare will tax us more? Our government’s over taxation and interference has caused small businesses to be reluctant to hire more employees. Under the Obama regime we’ll see businesses leaving the country droves. It is no wonder that our country’s economy is on a downward spiral.”
42 Comments
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Tagged Austan Goolsbee Obama chief economic adviser leaving, Citizen Wells commenters on small business problems, Obama economic failures