Mr. Buffet is LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH about his secretary. If her total income for 2006 was $60,000, her top MARGINAL rate was 25%, not 30%. And that is on TAXABLE income, after deductions and exemptions for a SINGLE taxpayer.
2006 Federal Tax Rate Schedules
Note: These tax rate schedules are provided so that you can compute your federal estimated income tax for 2006.
Schedule X — Single If taxable income:
is over-But not over— The tax is:
$00.00__$ 7,550______ 10% of the amount over $0
$7,550__$30,650______ $755.00 plus 15% over 7,550
$30,650_$74,200______ $4,220 plus 25% over 30,650
So even if the secretary were to have ZERO exemptions and ZERO deductions - completely impossible for earned income - she would owe only 19.26% of $60,000.
Buffet is a highly typical over-rich liberal, suffering from the typical guilt that seems to come from this accumulation, and infected with the typical god-complex mindset that makes him want to order everyone else’s life.
Possibly he was considering her husband’s income too, or maybe her state income tax.
I agree with Buffett that her tax is too high, and that Buffett pays too little. But the lib answer to this problem is to increase taxes on families who earn up to $200,000, and I don’t see why someone earning $200,000 a year should pay the same tax rate as Buffett does either. What they should do is increase taxes on Buffett and his fellow billionaires, and leave the rest of us alone.