Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Joe Scarborough lashed out at President Obama's tax rate on Monday's "Morning Joe."
The president and First Lady Michelle Obama paid an 18% tax rate on $608,611 of income. Scarborough said that Obama had campaigned for higher taxes on the rich, yet paid half the tax rate that he paid. "The hypocrisy was mind-boggling," the MSNBC host said.
He said that Obama — whom he called a "class warrior" — went after Mitt Romney for paying a tax rate lower than what a teacher pays. Obama, Scarborough said, also paid a lower tax rate than teachers.
"Barack Obama has been championing raising taxes on small business owners for years and he's paying 18% in taxes because raising those taxes don't affect him," Scarborough alleged. "And he talks about fairness?!"
He continued, "Don't lecture me for a year and a half about how you wanna raise my taxes 5% more if you're paying tax rates in the teens. And I hear it from billionaires and hedge fund guys all the time, 'Let's raise taxes.' Yea, it's really easy for you, it's not so easy for small business owners."
Scarborough said that he pays more than 30% in taxes on his income every year. He has a reported annual salary of $6 million, and net worth of $18 million.
For his part, Obama supported the Buffett rule, which would have raised his tax rate to 30%. He urged in his 2012 State of the Union address, "we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes."
Related
Before You Go
