INsider: Murdoch slams Obama over carried interest — but why?

Rupert Murdoch seems to attract controversy the way some folks attract gnats.

The latest for the publishing tycoon? This week, the Wall Street Journal owner attacked the carried interest tax break that private equity and hedge funds have been benefiting from years.

One of those beneficiaries, of course, is Mitt Romney, who this week revealed that the effective tax rate on his 2011 income was 15%. After the candidate’s acknowledgment, Murdoch slammed the carried interest break, tweeting that “Romney tax uses long-term legal loophole. ‘carried interest’ makes all fund managers rich. Time both parties stopped selling out to Wall St.”

But the publishing giant didn’t stop there. The next day, Murdoch again tweeted about the carried interest tax break. “Billions over many years. Why and where has Obama been?”

It’s possible Mr. Murdoch doesn’t read the papers. The Administration’s 2009 budget proposal taxed carried interest as ordinary income and not as a long-term capital gain. According to the White House, that move would have hacked $24 billion out of the budget deficit over a decade — exactly the News Corp. CEO’s point.

And In September, the President backed upping the carried interest rate as one way to fund his nearly $450 billion jobs package.

In fact, in a speech in July, Obama stated: “How can we ask a student to pay more for college before we ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries?”

The response to Mr. Murdoch’ tweets was not particularly favorable. Wrote one Twitter follower: “Uh, Obama’s proposed removing carried interest LTCG treatment, repeatedly.”