Fact-Checker Finds Biden’s Economic Lie

One of Joe Biden’s regular lies is that the rich don’t pay enough taxes. The problem is, as usual, the President uses bogus numbers. As explained by the NY Post, Hunter’s dad says:

Look, I think you should be able to be a billionaire if you can earn it, but just pay your fair share.

I think you ought to pay a minimum tax of 25%.

It’s about basic fairness. pic.twitter.com/oHgreYCdUz

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 18, 2023

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.