Between 87 percent and 97 percent of American taxpayers have an effective tax rate that is lower than the 15 percent rate under which Mitt Romney says he falls.
But, hey, let's not let the facts get in the way of a good ol' class-warfare smear.
Democrats, "progressives" and other connivers hoping to capitalize on the ignorance of the Menckenian "boobeoisie" made much of Mr. Romney's statement that his effective tax rate is about 15 percent.
They then bloviated along some variation of the line that "here's yet another rich bastard taxed at nearly half the rate of most working Americans!" Or, as one New Jersey newspaper editorialist put it, it's yet further proof that the "game is rigged for the fat cats."
How embarrassing and shameful for those lacking the intellectual wherewithal to understand the facts and for those intentionally misrepresenting them.
Yes, investment income is taxed at a lower rate than earned income. And there's a perfectly sound rationale for that tax policy.
The first is that the lower rate incentivizes reinvestment. It's the kind of reinvestment that underwrites research and development and creates jobs -- even jobs for the soldiers of class warfare -- and generates even more tax receipts.
The second is a matter of basic fairness (but, even then, it's not very fair): In order to have investments that pay investment income, Romney, just like anybody else, had to earn the money, which also was taxed. Thus, he's been taxed twice .
In some scenarios, the government is conscripting nearly 50 cents of every dollar. It's remarkable that there's any money left to invest.
That said, most "working Americans" -- what, Romney and "the rich" haven't "worked"⢠-- do not pay federal taxes on their earned income at nearly double the rate that the Mitt Romneys of the nation do on their investment income.
Given the structure of the U.S. tax code -- deductions, credits and whatnot -- those making under $100,000 a year are being taxed at an effective rate of anywhere from around 12 percent to 4 percent.
To wit, in 2009, the Internal Revenue Service reports that 97 percent of all taxpayers were taxed at an effective rate of less than 15 percent. Or how about 2007. As The Wall Street Journal noted on Friday, citing Congressional Budget Office numbers, the average income tax rate paid by the American middle class -- those in the 21st to 80th income percentiles -- was 4.2 percent.
Or put another way, as Noel Sheppard did for NewsBusters, "if Romney pays 15 percent as he stated, he's paying at a higher rate than 97 percent of his fellow citizens."
"Even measuring this by taxable income, Romney is still paying more than 87 percent of filers," Mr. Sheppard notes.
This is what appalls Romney's critics?
This is what has, according to a New York Times editorial, "reminded Americans of the fundamental unfairness of the current tax code"?
Well, if one misrepresents what Americans really pay, then yes.
This is what prompted three Bloomberg News reporters to snidely write that Romney pays taxes at a rate "far less than millions of wage earners whose votes he's trying to win"?
That's an accurate statement — but only if they're referring to the, say, 3.2 million returns that report an adjusted gross income of between $200,000 and $500,000 a year and have an effective tax rate of 19.6 percent.
Tsk, tsk, the smearers just can't win.
