The next time you hear Bernie Sanders yelling about how people need to pay their fair share of taxes, keep in mind that he pays less in taxes than the average American. The tax returns are out for almost all of the Presidential candidates and who do you think pays the least–by a considerable margin?
As you might expect, as a member of the 1% Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz are paying the highest effective tax rates–35.7% and 36.7% respectively. Clinton manages to take an amazing 5-Million dollars in itemized deductions–while Cruz claims about 73-thousand. John Kasich paid an effective tax rate of 18.5%–on income of 403-thousand. That is still above the national average of 14.7%.
And then you have Senator Sanders who makes 205-thousand dollars a year–and claims more than 56-thousand dollars in itemized deductions (just 4% of that for charitable donations, by the way). That works out to an effective tax rate of just 13.5%.
You may be quick to point out that Sanders is a “humble public servant”–but so is John Kasich. And the Kasichs give more to charity and paid 1/3 more in taxes. And I also have to wonder why a 74-year old man has a mortgage that still sees him pay 23-thousand dollars in mortgage interest? I realize he didn’t have a full time job until he was 40–but that is still 34-years to build up more equity than that.
One return that is missing is that of Donald Trump. That is likely due to the fact that such a release will burst the bubble of being a “billionaire”–and a “successful businessman”–and a “generous benefactor”–but that is a subject of another Two Cents another day.
Today, we just want to point out that it continues to be those that pay the least in taxes that are always demanding the rest of us pay more.
