Tax rates

After Obama proposed the Buffett rule, there were a slew of articles and blogs claiming that the rich actually pay higher rates than the rest of us. Some of the numbers were obviously just plain made up. So I decided to see if the statistics were available. Turns out they're pretty easy to get. Here's a start: IRS stats.

I used the data set labeled Table 1.1 for 2009. Now the tax codes are pretty complicated, so it's useless to compare published rates. But it's easy to see what people are actually paying. I took the total income taxes paid in each bracket. I added the total FICA (employee and employer, they're easy to compute) and divided by the total Adjusted Gross Income in each bracket to get an effective tax rate. Here's a graph:



Notes:

• Not included are sales taxes, property taxes, estate taxes, etc. None of which are tied directly to income.


• The rates max out somewhere under $1M a year. A millionaire does not have that much income, so Obama's description is not exactly accurate, but the principle is dead on.


• I repeat, the income tax part of this data is what people are actually paying, not derived by any tax rules. No loophole shenanigans here.


• This entire post is public domain. Use it to your heart's content.

McCain and Trust

John McCain hit the nail right on the head in his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination. He said the Republicans have lost the trust of the American people. That's really an understatement, at least for this former Republican.

He claims to be different, and to advocate change. And it would be believable, given his reputation. But Obama's point that he voted with Bush 90% of the time is telling.

His stated policies are on the whole better than Obama's, but the differences are pretty minor. But where they really differ, he is pretty scary.

His platform on abortion is too extreme. The platform supports a constitutional amendment that "The unborn child [from the moment of conception] has a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed." This means a 12 year old girl, raped by her father will be forced by the federal government to bear the child. That is positively barbaric.

He supports even further cutting taxes on the wealthy. This just makes me sick, and I won't talk about it any more.

His responses to various questions lead me to believe he is a warmonger. At the least he tends to think about international issues in military terms. When asked about how to deal with evil in the world, he dismisses any notion of containment, and insists on defeating it. Well, there is a lot of evil in the world, and many countries wish us harm.

If you vote for a warmonger, please do not be surprised when you get a war. What I am really afraid of is, Given McCain's attitude toward global ideological struggle, the opponents in his war will not be Iran or North Korea. They will be Russia and China.