What did Debbie pay?

Published January 24, 2012 5:00am ET



President Obama will reportedly use Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, as a prop for his reelection campaign’s class warfare theme tonight. Buffett has written in The New York Times that while his effective tax rate is only  only 17.4 percent, the average tax burden in his office, which includes Debbie, is 36 percent.

Considering that, according to the IRS, the effective rate for individuals making more than $100,000 is only 26.3 percent, many analysts have questioned the accuracy of Buffett’s claim. According to The Tax Policy Center, a full 60 percent of American pay a lower effective rate than Buffett does.

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