Presidential Prevarication

Not that there was ever any doubt, but the Associated Press ran the numbers on President Obama's soak-the-rich tax scheme, and guess what?

The president's a fibber.

The news agency culled figures from a number of key authorities -- like the IRS and the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center -- and demonstrated conclusively that top US earners pay far higher rates than other folks.

And foot a wildly outsized portion of the federal tax tab.

"It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million," Obama huffed Monday.

EPA

Barack Obama

Well, it would be wrong -- if it happened. Which it rarely does.

The truth? Households earning more than $1 million a year fork over, on average, about 29 percent of their income to the Tax Man; those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 pay just 15 percent.