Get out that checkbook, Warren.
Obama’s proposed “Buffett Rule”– which would force the wealthiest Americans to pay higher taxes to help cut the nation’s deficits — has met its Republican match.
Republican lawmakers have introduced their own “Buffett Rule” that would allow billionaire investors like Warren Buffett who say they’re not paying enough taxes to voluntarily give more money to the federal government.Under the legislation, authored by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Rep. John Scalise of Louisiana, taxpayers can donate at least a $1 to the Treasury fund for deficit reduction when they file their federal income tax returns starting next year.
“If individuals like Warren Buffett or President Obama are inclined to donate their own personal money toward paying down the federal government’s debt, they ought to have that right to do so voluntarily,” Thune said. “This bill would make it easier for those wealthy individuals who feel they are currently under-taxed to pay more to the U.S. Treasury above and beyond their current obligations, without raising taxes on America’s job creators.”
Obama’s “Buffett Rule” is part of his $450 billion jobs bill that was defeated in the Senate this week and will now be taken up in pieces. His version of the rule aims to stop millionaires from exploiting lower tax rates on investment earnings than what middle-income taxpayers pay on their wages – a cause that Buffett, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, has been long advocating. But Republicans have fired back, saying anyone who feels undertaxed should just write a check to Uncle Sam.
“It’s ironic that President Obama is using Warren Buffett as a poster child for raising taxes at a time when the federal government is saying Berkshire Hathaway hasn’t even paid their own taxes,” Scalise said. “If Warren Buffett truly feels that he’s not paying enough in taxes, he doesn’t need a change in law to put his money where his mouth is, he can send his check for a larger amount to the Treasury today.”
Buffett has argued that Congress should raise the tax rates on Americans making more than $1 million, including dividends and capital gains. He says he has never seen in his 60 years of working with investors anyone pass up a good investment because of the tax rate.
“My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress,” he wrote in a New York Times opinion article in August titled, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.” “It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/15/republicans-unveil-their-buffett-rule-allowing-americans-to-pay-more-to-uncle/
The wealthy, many of whom are job-creating business owners, already pay a lot of taxes. But the Democrats can’t resist using them as targets for their class war. Guilt-ridden wealthy liberals and the entitlement culture in their voting bloc, are all too willing to be used as a campaign wing.
The Middle Class is burdened as well, and as the government runs out of upper tax bracket people to squeeze, the shit will run downhill.
Of course the Dems, never ones to put their integrity where their mouths are, will never let this get past the Senate. Instead, we get lectures that we don’t deserve to keep our money and we need to ‘get over our anger’.
Related articles
- Republicans Propose Their Own Buffett Rule (michellemalkin.com)
- Warren Buffett made lots of money in 2010, paid fairly low taxes (shortformblog.tumblr.com)