Obama, Taxes, and Lies

On October 8th, Obama told Charlie Gibson:

Although here's what I'll say. I mean, first of all, we've been talking about student loans probably every day during course of this campaign. I mean, I've got a very specific plan to make sure that students are able to afford to go to college in exchange for community service or military service.

So we are going to make sure that every young person in America can go to college. They have a right to be worried about social security and Medicare because those entitlement program are going to be running out of money unless we make some fundamental changes. And those are going to be tough choices. You know, I have offered what I think is the best approach on Social Security, for example, which is raising the cap on the payroll tax, keeping the tax rate the same, but saying, you know, somebody like myself or Warren Buffet can afford to pay a little more in payroll tax to make sure the system is solvent.

Currently, the cap on Social Security taxes is $102,0000. The rate is 12.4%. For employees, half of this is payment is made by the employer. Self-employed business owners pay the entire amount.

A plan like this, without a cap, means that a self-employed person, making $149,000 (under the $150,000 that Biden mentioned) will see a "payroll" tax increase of $5,828. This means, that Obama is misleading people. There may not be an increase in Federal income tax for those making under $150,000, but there is a huge increase in "payroll" taxes. Add to that Medicare taxes on everything and a self-employeed person making $149,000 will pay an additional $7,191 in taxes.

The man is lying about no tax increase for those making under $150,000, $200,000, $250,000.