Buffett rule? Gallup asks wrong question

A recent Gallup poll found that six in 10 Americans think Americans with a household income of $1 million or more per year should pay a minimum tax rate of 30 percent.

Gallup cites the response as evidence of support for what Barack Obama has termed the "Buffett Rule," after billionaire Warren Buffett who complains his "secretary," who earns nearly $250,000 a year, mind you, pays more in taxes than he does.

There are several problems with this poll, the thinking behind it and its methodology.

There are several reasons Buffett's secretary pays more proportionally than her boss:

• Buffett refuses to pay taxes the government says he owes. He hires the best lawyers money can buy to ensure paying as little as possible.
• Buffett could solve this inequity if he chose, simply by paying more taxes, rather than lobbying for others, in completely different circumstances, to pay more for him.
• Buffett's "income," in this case, is a completely different kind of income than his secretary's. It's investment income, which is treated differently than salaries and wages because taxes have already been paid on the money earned to make such investments.
• Buffett is one of those billionaires who, having made it, wants to ensure that others don't. The quickest way to do that is to get the government to do his dirty work – keeping the competition in check.
• The question asked by Gallup never cited the so-called "Buffett Rule" in its question, thus intentionally misleading respondents with the following question: "Would you favor or oppose Congress passing a new law that would require households earning $1 million a year or more to pay a minimum of 30 percent of their income in taxes?"
• Though Gallup broke out responses by party affiliation, it did not attempt to sample proportionately by party affiliation. According to the poll, 72 percent of Democrats favor the law, while only 43 percent of conservatives do. With a poll that shows wide disparity between Republicans and Democrats, that is quite an important factor – one not pointed out by the highly esteemed yet politically loaded pollster.
• The poll offered no definitions to respondents about what qualifies as "income." This is the most important issue of all, because most employers in the country are taxed at the rate of their company's income, not what they take home.

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In other words, this poll is not worth the electrons with which it was published – unless, of course, the intent was to influence the public debate rather than to reflect accurately public opinion.

For instance, I think you could ask an entirely different question and get much more stunning results: How would you feel about instituting a low flat tax, of 15 percent, to ensure every American pays the same rate, without exceptions and loopholes.

My guess is such a poll would show a majority in favor of such a plan, especially when Americans learn that about 50 percent of Americans pay no income tax at all, while the top 10 percent already pay 70 percent of taxes. That's why Buffett's "secretary" pays so much. She's in the very top tier of taxpayers in our so-called "progressive" tax system – which is patently unfair.

Paying our "fair share," as Obama likes to put it, should mean we all pay the same percentage of taxes. The rich pay much more than the poor, but they pay the same percentage. The so-called "progressive" tax system we have in America is a socialist contrivance that punishes achievement and hurts the poor and working class because those with financial resources are disincentivized from investing them in business and job creation.

It also creates a class of people who have no stake in the game. How easy is it for someone not paying any taxes to say they want others to pay more? Very easy. Without making any contribution themselves, they have every incentive to soak others.

This is exactly the kind of class system the Democratic Party and the media, Gallup included, want to create in America. It becomes the government's dependency class vs. the productive class – and this leads in short order to socialist tyranny and economic misery for the very people trying so hard to make it in tough times like these.

This is an example of the government-media complex dumbing down Americans, manipulating them for their own empowerment and, quite frankly, playing voodoo economics.

This is what Obama is counting on to win in 2012.

This is what he is counting on to complete his promised fundamental transformation of America.

Don't be fooled.