mr. barthold. >> co-chair recognizes senator kerry of massachusetts. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to focus later on some of the tax expenditure piece probably when we're individual, but i think it's important to note that 80% of all the money the federal government raises in taxes, 80% of it, goes out right back into tax expenditures. only 20% of what we raise actually goes into things we spend and pay for at the federal level. 95% of the tax expenditures, 95% of the 80% goes to the top ten expenditure items. i have a lot of questions of the efficiency of that and other things and the choices made in that which i think we have to look at, but i want to say at the outset i second powerfully what senator portman said about our opportunity here given the mandate and structure of this committee and the presentation to the congress to take advantage of this to try to get that sweet spot, which he talked about which is really simplifying this, putting in place the most efficient choices that will drive our economy that therefore will raise revenues and help us deal both

mr. barthold, thank you again. let me focus on a couple things. quite a bit about the buffet rule that someone like mr. buffet, one of the wealthiest men in the world, pays at a lower rate of taxation than does his secretary. could you tell us a little bit about the features of the tax code that make something like this possible, that someone making so much money, not a millionaire, but a billionaire, could actually have an effective tax rate that's lower than his secretary? >> okay. i assume what mr. buffet's referring to is his average tax rate which is the total amount of tax that he pays over his total amount of income, although it's possible he could be referring to the marginal tax rate. i'm honestly not clear on what he's claiming, but let's assume that his secretary is paid less than approximately $106,000 a year, so that would mean that the secretary is subject to the individual income tax rate and is subject to the payroll tax rate. i don't know what salary he's paid, but his total income is not all subject, the social security part of p

mr. barthold. >> thank you very much. i want to thank the witness today for participating and all of our members who were here today as well. i remind all of our members that they have three business days to submit questions for the record and i would ask the witness to try and respond isgrigg is possible. so all of our member should submit their questions by the close of business on tuesday, september 27. and with that without objection the joint committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations] >> the joint chiefs of staff joint chiefs of staff have agreed to remove the question regarding one's sexual orientation from future versions of the enlistment application. and it will not be asked in the interim. >> this week marked the end of "don't ask don't tell," the policy that kept openly and personnel from serving in the military and more than 14,000 discharged servicemembers can apply for reinstatement. follow the history of "don't ask don't tell" on line, all archived and searchable at the c-span video library. the