President Obama's Effective Tax Rate

WSJ- Obama Tax Rate

The President's effective tax rate for the 2012 tax year was 18.4%.  The Obamas paid $112,214 in federal income taxes on adjusted gross income of $608,611.  In 2011, the first family paid an effective tax rate of 20.5%- a higher rate due to the higher amount of royalties coming in from the president's book sales.  

The release of the president's tax return information comes at a time when debate about the amount of taxes the wealthy ought to pay begins to heat up again.  The president is making another push for a "grand bargain" on deficit reduction.  On the left side of the aisle, "democrats believe any deficit-reduction package would have to include significant new federal revenues from increased taxes on wealthy people."  Meanwhile, republicans take an opposing viewpoint... they believe that any further major deficit reduction measure has to come from reducing the level of spending done by the federal government.  In particular, they want to rein in the spending on entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.