Would you like a side of deductions with that?

Gentle Readers,

President Obama filed his tax returns. When you calculate his rate ‘Dr. J.’ style, that is Total Tax/Total Income, it comes to 16.2% compared against Dr. J.’s 22.3%.

Now of course, the President puts out a release every year to assuage his guilt over what he sees as paying less than his fair share.

Today, the mouth of Sauron himself, Jay Carney writes:

Today, the President released his 2012 federal income tax returns. He and the First Lady filed their income tax returns jointly and reported adjusted gross income of $608,611. The Obamas paid $112,214 in total tax. 

The President and First Lady also reported donating $150,034 – or about 24.6 percent of their adjusted gross income – to 33 different charities. The largest reported gift to charity was $103,871 to the Fisher House Foundation. 

The President’s effective federal income tax rate is 18.4 percent. The President believes we must reform our tax system which is why he has proposed policies like the Buffett Rule that would ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share while protecting families making under $250,000 from seeing their taxes go up. Under the President’s own tax proposals, including limitations on the value of tax preferences for high-income households, he would pay more in taxes while ensuring we cut taxes for the middle class and those trying to get in it. 

The President and First Lady also released their Illinois income tax return and reported paying $29,450 in state income tax. 

The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden also released their 2012 federal income tax returns, as well as state income tax returns for both Delaware and Virginia. The Bidens filed joint federal and combined Delaware income tax returns. Dr. Biden filed a separate non-resident tax return for the state of Virginia. Together, they reported adjusted gross income of $385,072. The Bidens paid $87,851 in total federal tax for 2012. They paid $13,531 in Delaware income tax and $3,593 in Virginia income tax. The Bidens contributed $7,190 to charity in 2012.

Effective rate vs. Dr. J.’s total in, total out method aside, Dr. J. thinks that the President has a lot of nerve talking about ‘fair share’ when he isn’t willing to voluntarily pay up to the fair share he expects of others.

Leadership would be calculating his taxes separately with his proposed tax structure THEN after publishing them side by side,  voluntarily giving the difference to the treasury.

One doesn’t have to take advantage of our tax code’s so-called loopholes if one chooses not to ($150,000 in charitable giving, much?).

Now Dr. J., as you know is against excessive taxes. He agrees with the President’s actions, that is, paying the minimum amount of taxes permissible by law.

That being said however, Dr. J. now believes that every time the President talks about rich people paying their fair share we should remind the American public that that should mean 17%.

Let’s just make that the flat tax rate for all income above $30K (with 1% of everything below that) and be done with it.

Dr. J.