Biden lies about taxes paid by the rich

 The Lid:

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Look, I think you should be able to be a billionaire if you can earn it, but just pay your fair share,” Biden’s tweet read. “I think you ought to pay a minimum tax of 25%. It’s about basic fairness.”

The tweet included a graphic of a Biden quote that said: “You know the average tax billionaires pay? Three percent. No billionaire should be paying a lower tax than somebody working as a schoolteacher or a firefighter.”

But it is unclear where the 3% figure came from, and it contradicts figures the White House has issued in the past.

The truth is that fact-checkers didn’t find the above numbers wrong; it was Biden himself. The story above was different than what he said two years ago:.

But the Bookings institute fessed up for Joe:

“Using the existing definition of taxable income, really rich people pay an average federal income tax rate in the mid-20s,” Per Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center senior fellow Howard Gleckman told PolitiFact in July. “If you want to include unrealized gains in your denominator, as the White House does, the average rate would go way down.”

The Post adds:

Another White House figure from 2021 gave an 8% figure rather than the 3% one Biden recently cited.

“The analysis from OMB and CEA economists estimates that the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in America paid an average of just 8.2 percent of their income – including income from their wealth that goes largely untaxed – in Federal individual income taxes between 2010 and 2018. That’s a lower rate than many ordinary Americans pay,” the 2021 post read.

In response, Twitter CEO Elon Musk disputed Biden’s tax claim.

So during two years of covid and the recession, the average tax rate for rich people dropped from 8% to 3%.  

“The analysis from OMB and CEA economists estimates that the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in America paid an average of just 8.2 percent of their income – including income from their wealth that goes largely untaxed – in Federal individual income taxes between 2010 and 2018. That’s a lower rate than many ordinary Americans pay,” the 2021 post read.

Twitter’s owner Elon Musk thought Biden’s tax claim was bogus

“I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average!” the South African entrepreneur wrote. “I also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022.”

“Would be curious to hear how these other ‘billionaires’ are so good at avoiding taxes!” Musk added in another tweet, after asking Twitter’s Community Notes feature to fact-check the statement.

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It is unlikely that anyone at this time is richer than Elon Musk.  Many of the rich have what is called unrealized gains on assets such as stocks.  Those gains are not taxed until the stock or other asset is sold and liquidated because it gets way too complicated should the value of the asset change drastically before it is sold. 

There is more on Joe Biden's war with the Truth:

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Over the years, many — even conservatives — have called what Biden does “embellishment.” No, he’s a liar. The younger people who were duped into voting for him don’t know that his 1988 presidential run was derailed because it was found that he was a big-time plagiarist in college. That’s a sign of fundamental dishonesty, something that Biden has exhibited throughout his long, overrated career in Washington.

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