Obama and his tax hypocrisy

I trust you survived tax season.  For many it’s a grueling time.  CNSNews recently figured up how long the tax code is.  If every page of the tax code were put on a standard 8.5x11-inch sheet of paper and laid end to end it would stretch nearly 13 miles.  Imagine that, thirteen miles of tax code.

Most of us spend our time trying to reduce our tax liability.  Can we write this off?  Can we take that deduction?  It’s mind-numbing, tedious and downright frustrating.  If you’ve ever had to fill out even a mortgage deduction worksheet you know what I’m talking about.

President Obama worked a deal with Congress to raise the top marginal tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent effective the 2013 tax year.  That means when you file your taxes for next year if you’re making over $400,000 as an individual or $450,000 as a couple your taxes are going up.  The president said it was time for people like him to start paying their fair share.

The problem is when it came time for the president and first lady to pay their fair share this year they decided not to.

The First Family had a gross income of $665,074 which certainly places them in that evil one percent.  They took deductions to get their taxable income down to $335,000, essentially cutting their tax liability in half.  Instead of paying at the 35 percent top marginal tax rate they had an effective tax rate of 18.4 percent.

Now, I’m not suggesting they did anything illegal.  What I am suggesting is that they did something grossly immoral given their adamant stance that people like them should be paying their fair share.  When faced with the choice of not taking the deductions and paying their fair share they chose to get out of paying as much in taxes as was possible under the law.  This is the height of hypocrisy.

In the last election Obama derided Mitt Romney for paying a 14 percent effective tax rate.  Romney was taking all the deductions he was entitled to and most of his income came from long-term investments.  Somehow, according to Obama, he wasn’t paying his fair share and Obama was determined to do something about it.

His latest proposal caps deductions at 28 percent and he didn’t even adhere to that principle when he filed his own taxes.

The left continue to demonize the rich yet there are so many rich among them who do the very same thing the Obamas do.  They bellyache about how the tax system favors the rich yet they hire legions of tax experts to help them avoid paying taxes.

To me, it’s a lot like the environmental issue.  Many self-proclaimed greenies preach to the rest of us about lowering our carbon footprint (as if carbon dioxide is somehow bad) yet when it comes to adjusting their own lifestyle they take absolutely no action.  They still own multiple homes, and large ones at that.  They still fly all over the world, oftentimes in private jets.  They still drive large luxury automobiles.  If you really feel that strongly that carbon dioxide is the problem then you don’t wait for laws to force the people into a more austere lifestyle.  You lead by example.

Same goes for getting control of our country’s economic problems.  The problem is the government takes too much of our money and wastes it on frivolous expenditures.  What we should be doing is lowering taxes and stimulating more through the private sector.

At least the Obamas seem to have that part down pat.