AP says Obama is wrong about the "Buffet Rule."

FACT CHECK: Are rich taxed less than secretaries?

President Barack Obama makes it sound as if there are millionaires all over America paying taxes at lower rates than their secretaries.


"Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires," Obama said Monday. "That's pretty straightforward. It's hard to argue against that."

The data tell a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.

And:

With tax rates that high, why do so many people pay at lower rates? Because the tax code is riddled with more than $1 trillion in deductions, exemptions and credits, and they benefit people at every income level, according to data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official scorekeeper on revenue issues.


The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46 percent of households, mostly low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes this year. Most, however, will pay other taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes.

Of course, we are not factoring in the approximate 20% in Social Security taxes that virtually disappear after approximately $100,000 in income.  Increasing the ceiling for Social Security to include all income would be a quick way to cause economic collapse.