This one's
going to confuse conservatives:
The White House said Friday that President Obama has a lower effective tax rate than his secretary.
"The president's secretary pays a slightly higher rate this year than the president on her substantially lower income," White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage told CNNMoney.
The president's secretary is Anita J. Breckenridge, and according to White House disclosure forms, the "personal aide to the president" earns $95,000 a year.
Brundage declined to say exactly what tax rate Breckenridge paid. Earlier Friday, the White House released Obama's 2011 tax returns, which showed an adjusted gross income of $789,674 for the first family, and an effective federal income tax rate of 20.5%.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney pays an even lower tax rate than President Obama. So Romney earns $20 million and pays 15 percent. Obama earns nearly one million and pays just over 20 percent. And his secretary earns less than $100,000 and pays more than either of them. (It even turns out Joe Biden
pays a higher tax rate despite earning less.)
That's totally screwed up. It needs to change. And as much as I'm sure conservatives would love to attack Obama for this, the reality is that he's the one fighting for fairness, even though he'd end up paying more. And that's a big difference between him and Mitt Romney.