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Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Obama Tax Calculator - Warren Buffett, Call Your Office [Updated]

    OK, can someone explain this?  The Obama campaign has a new tax calculator to let you see what your taxes will look like under Obama versus Romney.  I plugged in several different income levels to see what would happen (for now, I ignored the Romney side of things.)  Last I heard, the president wanted to "continue tax cuts for the middle class" and have the rich "pay a little more" so they are paying their "fair share."  So what gives?











There is an generic explanation given when clicking on the "Learn More" link:


So someone earning $1 short of a billion dollars will see a savings of $8,295 under Obama's plan?  Warren Buffett isn't going to be happy about this.

UPDATE:  Someone explained to me that the "savings" is in contrast to allowing ALL the "Bush tax cuts" to expire (which of course, no one is suggesting.)  But this allows the president to claim "savings" even for someone earning $999,999,999 because if the current marginal tax rates on the first $200,000 of income are renewed for 2013, everyone would "save" taxes on their first $200,000, whereas if the Bush tax cuts expire completely, everyone's marginal rates on all income would increase.  So even though the wealthy would be required by Obama's plan to pay their "fair share," he's graciously "saving" them $8,295 that they can apply to the enormous new amounts they will owe on income exceeding $200,000.  This is like the Godfather telling someone that he saved one of their kneecaps because he only broke one instead of both like he'd originally planned.  The "rich" don't appreciate how good the president is being to them.

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