Shaheen Tweets – The Return of Warren Buffett’s Secretary

by Steve MacDonald

Senator Shaheen must be following orders, why else resurrect this left wing meme?  “Buffet pays effective tax rate of 11% Avg is 13.5% He’s paying lower rate than his own secretary.” (Just when Obama is pushing the Buffett rule again. Hmmmm.) 

So here’s my problem.  When did “secretary” stop being one of those sexist, politically incorrect words we were forbidden to use?  Isn’t ‘secretary’ demeaning to women. Oh, wait, not when it makes the newest pawn in your Obamnomics Class Warfare Chess Set seem like a dowdy single mother instead of a 1%er who probably gets great bonuses and awesome Christmas presents from the Billionaire boss. (Chess set pieces delivered every four to six weeks, only 670 billion plus shipping and handling for each.)

OK, that’s not really the problem.  I want to know when Warren Buffett’s ‘Secretary’ stopped paying 35.8%?

Back in the hey-day of this particualr vintage of class warfare rhetoric, (Jan of this year, actually) Buffet was paying 17.4% and his secretary was paying an impossible 35.8%.   Are we changing the argument?  Are Democrats admitting that that was just another exaggeration, or even made up out of whole cloth?

Senator Shaheen’s ‘Tweet’ begs all manner of suspicion.  Take the reference to the $44 Billion, for example.  In this context is she trying to infer that he has never paid taxes on all that money, or that he only ever paid 11% on any of it?   It’s a tweet.   Much is left to the imagination.   But you can see where people might think that Buffett has $44 Billion because he pays less in taxes than his hard working secretary.

Here’s another problem.  Let’s guess that Debbie Bosanek (That’s Ebenezer Buffett’s poverty stricken secretary) actually pays somewhere around 13.5% in taxes.  Even a forgiving estimate–according to Forbes.com–would put her adjusted gross income between $200,000.00 and $300,000.00 per year.  Bosanek also owns two homes, and does not seem to be doing too badly for herself.  Good for her.  She probably deserves it.  But doesn’t that, by all Democrat calculations, make her rich?  Or are we ignoring that now too?

Senator Shaheen has another problem.  She hails from a state (elected by and sworn to represent) that is averse to the very kinds of taxes and tax rhetoric she is employing here.   It is an aversion to taxes that has resulted in New Hampshire having one of the lowest tax burdens and one of the highest standards of living in the entire country.   The average Granite Stater makes more per year on average than in any state in the nation.  But nowhere near the amazing standard of living afforded that victim of evil capitalism, Warren Buffet’s secretary, at least based on the tax numbers Democrats keep attributing to her.

At the old rate of 35.8%, which she was reported to be paying just three months ago, she’d have to be an Evil Oil Company® or one of the richest people in the world, who also has the worst accountants on earth, because no individual in America pays that much in taxes at this moment in history.

Which brings us to Jeanne Shaheen’s net worth–while we are on the subject.  According to this post last summer in NH Journal, …

Senator Shaheen’s net worth falls between $879,020 and $4,679,992. Senator Shaheen and her husband list assets of between $3,479,020 and $6,010,000.

Anyone care to guess how much they paid in taxes?  I didn’t look, but I’m wondering if it might be less than that secretary the Senator alludes to in her tweet.

You are reading Shaheen Tweets - The Return of Warren Buffett's Secretary by Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com.

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The ‘Weinergate’ Effect (On Congressional Tweets)

According to Mashable, congressional Tweets are down 30% since the Weinergate debacle unfolded.   The lesson in the aftermath seems to be that less Twitter is better if your day job lands you in the Capitol building.  Either that or 30% of the Tweets coming from the Federal Government’s elected members may be considered of a questionable nature and that activity has been castrated by little Anthony and his tweets.

Democrats decreased their activity only slightly more than that of Republicans, 29% vs the GOP decline of 27%, which didn’t surprise me.  What did surprise me was the actual volume of Tweets from the right.  Republicans are tweeting more than twice as often, before and after the momentous events since memorial day weekend.

This might pose a curious problem for the left.  They used to make fun of Republicans failure to embrace technology and social media.   They even bragged about a technical advantage.  But that gap no longer exists.  With Republicans obviously embracing social media–one of the success stories behind the TEA party and the 2010 landslide–Democrats may have to try to win on issues.

Yeah, that is kind of funny.  Win on issues.  I crack myself up.

Fear not Twitter-sphere. The reality of this decrease can be more easily explained like this.  Most sane people slow down when they pass a car on the side of the road that has been pulled over by a police officer.  (This does not apply in Massachusetts)  It is an acknowledgement that there is a line that can be crossed and that we know people cross it.  We just want to show you that we do know how to drive the speed limit.  (In New Hampshire there is a law requiring it.-slowing down when police or safety vehicles have their lights flashing, I mean.)

But about one-quarter mile after we’ve passed the scene we’ll put the lead back in our foot and get back to business as usual.

Give it a few days.  Congress will be back to its regular allotment of Twits, I mean tweets,  in no time.

cross posted