In a surprise move — and one that goes against official Obama Administration policy — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed a cut in the top income tax rate from 35% (slated to return to 39.6% next year after the expiration of the so-called "Bush tax cuts") to 27.5%.

Ok, well, not exactly.  Here's what actually happened.  In a speech to the Brookings Institute , Sec. Clinton first admitted she was speaking for herself, not the Administration.  But what she did say was interesting on several counts.  She claimed that "Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what — they're growing like crazy..."  She further claimed that here in the US, "the rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [America currently does] — whether it's individual, corporate or whatever taxation forms".

Well, as it turns out, what she said was not only questionable on the economic philosophy front — since when does taking more money out of the private sector, out of the hands of companies and entrepreneurs who actually employ people and make goods and services that consumers want to purchase create more employment? — but it was also wrong on the facts she stated.

Now granting that the tax structure is different overall in Brazil than it is in the United States, the Cato Institute's Daniel J. Mitchell found that Brazil's "overall tax burden of about 24 percent of GDP is slightly below the aggregate tax burden in the United States. ...Moreover, there’s no doubt that the tax burden in Canada is significantly higher than the Brazilian burden."  For those less-schooled in geography, both the United States and Canada are, in fact, located in the Western Hemisphere.  Brazil's highest income tax rate is 27.5% — also lower than that in the United States.  The lowest Brazilian income tax bracket is taxed at 7.5% while capital gains are taxed at 15% and dividends to individuals are not taxed at all; in the US the rates are 10% and 15%, respectively for low-income and cap gains.  With the sunset of the "Bush tax cuts", cap gains taxes will rise to 20% (President Obama has suggested even higher rates) and dividends will be taxed again at the same rate as regular income.  In suggesting we should be more like Brazil, Sec. Clinton is (apparently inadvertently) advocating for an overall tax cut.  And, according to a study for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States has a more "progressive" tax system than any other member country (note:  Brazil was not included in this study).  This hardly provides evidence towards Sec. Clinton's assertion that "the rich" are somehow "not paying their fair share".

Secretary Clinton did get one thing right:  Brazil does, in fact, have a lower unemployment rate than the US:  7.3% in April 2010 versus 9.9% in the US ; however, interestingly enough (if one wants to play with statistics) it is telling that during the 2000s, the Brazilian unemployment rate was higher than that in the US until the Democratic takeover of Congress following the 2006 elections .  So in addition to seemingly endorsing a tax cut he in the US, apparently Mrs. Clinton is also endorsing a Republican victory in the 2010 Congressional Elections.  Sounds like breaking news to me.