Michele Bachmann Lied on MSNBC

The first four words on Michele Bachmann's web site on the subject of taxes is, "Taxes are simply too high." This is patently false, as tax rates are now at historical lows.

Michele Bachmann was on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning saying that as a tax attorney she would change the tax code so that the wealthiest would not pay less than the middle class; and she would also change the corporate taxes so that they all paid the same effective tax rate.

She also says on her web site, "I believe in letting hard-working taxpayers keep more of what they earn." But on MSNBC she alluded to those pesky low-income people who don't pay any federal taxes at all and ought to at least pay something, "even if it's ten dollars." (to avoid a “dependency mentality.”)

She also says on her web site that she wants "to repeal the estate tax, reduce capital gains taxes, repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT), extend the adoption tax credit, and, make permanent other important tax relief passed by Congress in 2001 and 2003."

Remind her that the top 1% has capital gains as their primary source of income, and that the top 1% pays 70% of all capital gains taxes. Then ask her, "Why wouldn't you be willing to tax capital gains as regular income, according to their marginal income bracket?"

So if she says she wants the wealthiest to pay the same tax rate as the middle class, how can she also say she wants to lower capital gains taxes? She lied.

In other words, Michele Bachmann DOES NOT want the wealthy to pay the same effective tax rate as the middle-class, and she also wants to keep most of the nation's money supply concentrated at the top with no estate taxes.

She's also opposed to extending the tax cut for the middle-class.

On her web site she goes on to say, "I believe that less taxation and government regulation of private companies will continue to make America the best place in the world to do business."

So in other words, just more of the same that got us to where we are today.

On her blog she says, "[Obama] thinks taxing those making over $250,000 will solve our budget woes and create jobs. It won’t. The President is just singing the second verse of his same old song."

But the wealthy haven't created jobs WITH their tax cuts for the last ten years, but instead, actually lost millions of jobs. Does she really think that if the tax rate were ZERO, billions of jobs could be created and America would be much better off?

Nope! Chinese labor at Foxconn in China is still $150 a month (engineers, a little bit more. Just ask Apple.) And they'll be hiring robots to make labor even cheaper! Lower taxes won't create any more jobs. That is just plain naiveté.

It's Michele Bachmann who is just singing the same verse of the Republican's same old song.

But instead of raising tax rates, we could actually lower the tax rates to bring in more tax revenues.

First and foremost, just start taxing capital gains as regular income (because after all, it IS personal income for CEOs with stock options, investors with dividends, and hedge fund mangers with trades).

Then we could actually lower corporate taxes to 25% (the same as China), but eliminate ALL loopholes so ALL businesses (large and small) pay an "effective tax rate" of 25%. Allow corporations to repatriate their overseas earnings at 25% also, so long as they reinvest in their domestic workforce and facilities. But impose an export tax for every job "exported" overseas that could have been performed in the United States.

Then eliminate ALL corporate entitlements for any business showing a profit (like Exxon-Mobil and Boeing).

And also eliminate all subsidies for individuals for people like Michele Bachmann who received farm subsidies last year for a "farm" that had more than doubled in value since 2009. (She also fostered 23 children for profit. Why would the Minnesota Department of Human Services give one couple 23 kids?)

The top marginal rates for all individuals in all tax brackets (for personal income: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33% and 35%) could all stay the same. (NOTE: capital gains earned by CEOs, hedge fund managers, and bankers are tax at the 15% rate. Most Republicans want this at ZERO percent...Herman Cain proposed 9%)

The corporate rate and the capital gains rate is ass-backwards (35% and 15% respectively). It gives corporations the incentive to pocket more profits than to reinvest. If corporate taxes were lower than capital gains (25% corporate and 35% for incomes over $379,000), companies would chose to pay the lower corporate tax rate (and maybe produce and hire more).

Bonuses into the pockets of the CEOs (and lower taxes for members of Congress) doesn't create jobs, money in the consumer's pockets creates jobs.

As a tax attorney for the IRS, Michele Bachmann must also know how to dodge taxes. "I went to work in that system because the first rule of war is know your enemy. So I went to the inside to learn how they work, because I want to defeat them."

My related posts:

• The Real Job Creators are Poor
• Subsidies for the Rich and Famous
• It's not Class Warfare, it's just "Business"
• Historical Tax Rates on the Rich (1862 to 2011)
• The Second Gilded Age: History Repeats Itself
• Mellon: The Banker Who Rigged the U.S. Tax Code
• The GOP Tax Plan - Ignorance, Insanity, or Greed?
• We have a Revenue Problem, Not A Spending Problem
• 280 Corporations are "Too Big to Tax"
• Trickle-Down Economics: The Cruel 30-Year Hoax
• You Pay Hidden Entitlements for the Rich
• Record Profits + Record Bonuses = Zero Jobs
• Low Wages Kills Jobs, Not High Taxes

Unrelated to my blog: How Wealthy are President Barack Obama and His Cabinet?