Drudge: Kerry Pays Less in Taxes Than Average American

When talking about cutting taxes for the rich, Kerry flippantly pointed out on Friday night that the tax increase on the rich would only affect "you, the President and me, Charlie [Gibson]." The dirty little secret is that Kerry knows that the rich have many ways to shield their income from taxation. And John Kerry takes full advantage of this. As reported by Matt Drudge, Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth has calculated the effective tax rate paid by Kerry to be 12.8%.

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004�

"Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, writes in the WALL STREET JOURNAL on Monday: 'According to the Kerrys' own tax records, and they have not released all of them, the couple had a combined income of $6.8 million in income last year and paid $725,000 in income taxes. That means their effective tax rate was a whopping 12.8%.... 'Under the current tax system the middle class pays far more than the Kerry tax rate. In fact, the average federal tax rate -- combined payroll and income tax -- for a middle-class family is closer to 20% or more. George W. and Laura Bush, who had an income one- tenth of the Kerrys', paid a tax rate of 30%. ... "

Sure, Kerry could use this to say "yes......the rich do pay too little in taxes." The real point here is that the income tax amendment needs to be repealed and we need to go to a "Fair Tax"--a national Sales Tax--which taxes only consumption and not the income of the middle class or the investment of the middle class and the rich.