On Saturday, President Biden’s social media galaxy brains tweeted out a twice-corrected lie, quoting the president telling said lie, that billionaires are getting away paying just 3% of their average earnings in taxes.
“You know the average tax billionaires pay?
THREE PERCENT.
No billionaire should be paying a lower tax than somebody working as a schoolteacher or firefighter,” reads the erroneous tweet.
To which Musk replied: “I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average!“
“I also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022.”
I certainly agree that everyone should pay taxes and not engage in elaborate tax-avoidance schemes.
Would be curious to hear how these other “billionaires” are so good at avoiding taxes!
We should get rid of GRATs, but maybe other things too.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023
As Ian Bremmer points out, “the 3% number isn’t even close to true.”
Bremmer’s tweet includes a screenshot from CNN, which fact check’s the claim and notes that it’s from a 2021 finding that found the 400 wealthiest billionaire families pay an average of 8.2% of their income in federal taxes.
In response so Biden’s original claim that was fact checked, the White House published a corrected transcript.
the 3% number isn’t even close to true pic.twitter.com/62oX3tKlLx
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 19, 2023
Politifact found that the 25 highest-earning billionaires are paying around 16% in federal taxes, while most teachers and firefighters pay between zero and 15%.
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