Obama Fails to Apply the Buffett Rule to Himself

This is the title of a post that was made at the White House Dossier: Obama Fails to Apply the Buffett Rule to Himself

The author, Keith Koffler, got a look at President Obama's recently released tax return, and saw that he (along with his wife, since they filed jointly) paid only 22% of their income in taxes, while Obama's secretary paid 24%.

And the author is upset because "Obama fails to apply the Buffett rule to himself."

He is calling Obama a hypocrite, is he not?

There's only one problem, and you would have thought a "veteran White House reporter" would have seen what that problem was.

The Buffet rule is not in effect.

The Buffet rule is a *proposed* rule. What that means is, the Buffet rule is not in effect.

Indeed, if you read the White House blog entry on the subject, Obama is happily looking forward to seeing the Buffet Rule instituted, so that he can pay more in taxes.

See the difference. When the Buffet Rule is instituted, millionaires will have to pay 30% of their income in taxes. But since the Buffet Rule has not been instituted, since it has just been *proposed*, there is not yet a 30% tax rate for him to have to pay!

So he is not a hypocrite - in this instance - and it's stupid of people to try to pretend he is!

These lies and distortions don't help us, the Republicans, because there are millions of clear-sighted Independents who read English and comprehend it just as well as I can, and they are going to see it as an attempt at a smear job, they aren't going to like it, it's going to cause them to doubt every other criticism of Obama that someone makes, and they might just vote for Obama just to spite these folks, like Keith Koffler, whom they will resent for treating them like idiots!

There's enough stuff to criticize Obama on, without trying to set up these staw man arguments just to knock them down.