Obama tax plan to demand more of millionaires

[nadinbrzezinski]

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers, according to administration officials.

With a special joint Congressional committee starting work to reach a bipartisan budget deal by late November, the proposal adds a new and populist feature to Mr. Obama’s effort to raise the political pressure on Republicans to agree to higher revenues from the wealthy in return for Democrats’ support of future cuts from Medicare and Medicaid.

Mr. Obama, in a bit of political salesmanship, will call his proposal the “Buffett Rule,” in a reference to Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained repeatedly that the richest Americans generally pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do middle-income workers, because investment gains are taxed at a lower rate than wages.

Mr. Obama will not specify a rate or other details, and it is unclear how much revenue his plan would raise. But his idea of a millionaires’ minimum tax will be prominent in the broad plan for long-term deficit reduction that he will outline at the White House on Monday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44563075/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/

[MannyGoldstein]

1. "Demand"?

I hope so, but "ask nicely for a day or two then blame the Left" is the more likely outcome, based on past history.

[Divernan]

6. Doubtless O gave the GOP the courtesy of an advance warning. Merriment ensued.

Next time you see a picture of him yukking it up with Boehner on the golf course, you can figure they're talking about bogus legislation like this, designed to fool and placate the yokels. Like all the hundreds of pieces of legislation put forward every term for the PR value when political insiders know there's not a chance in hell they will be passed.

This one is win/win for Obama/Boehner.
O can tell the peons that he TRIED to tax the millionaires. Boehner can tell the millionaires that the GOP blocked the attempt to tax them.

[Systematic Chaos]

7. +1

I love reading posts from people who "get it." :D

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Good.

'Bout time.

[WillyT]

3. Oh, Be Still My Beating Heart...

I sure as hell hope so!

Good on him if he follows through though.

:shrug:


:kick:

[Donnachaidh]

4. "pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers"

Ahh -- but of course. folks like buffet make their money from capital gains. THAT'S the area Buffet and all the uber-rich want to exclude from any taxes.

Who wants to bet that a side dish to this *demand* is removal or shrinkage of the capital gains tax? Then, of course, that little *gift* will be blamed on the Republicans....

the devil is in the details folks. the keyword to watch here is *earnings*.....

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. To clarify... not buffett

He actually gets it... the rest... in the words of St. Sarah... you betcha!