[FoRK] Obama disingenuousness

[Jeff Bone]

BTW, there's one more thing that's been troubling me about Obama's  
misuse of Warren Buffet's statement about secretaries paying  
"more" (rate wise, though obviously not in total) than their investor- 
bosses in the context of the the Loathsome Hedge Fund 50.  While I  
have no doubt that Warren Buffet pays a lower overall blended tax rate  
than his secretary --- his wealth and income is most likely largely in  
the form of long-term capital gains, he's a long-term investor ---  
it's HIGHLY unlikely that more than a small part of the $29B those  
hedge fund managers made last year was taxed at the long-term cap  
gains rate.  Generally speaking most hedge funds aren't primarily long- 
term investors AFAIK.  The bulk of that take was almost certainly  
taxed at a higher rate;  a part of it in the form of regular income  
taxed almost exclusively at the top rate and a larger part of it taxed  
at the highest short-term cap gains rate.  Net-net I'd wager a fair  
penny that the blended tax rate paid on that "ill-gotten" $29B was  
considerably higher than the rate the supposed $60k / year secretary  
pays.

And I suspect Obama is and was quite aware of that, but "screw the  
rich" both resonates better with his own socialist attitude and plays  
better in economically-stressed Peoria.

$0.02,

jb