The New York Times is reporting a new measure by President Barack Obama called The Buffett Rule. According to the news report, President Obama will announce on Monday plans to tax millionaires at the same tax rate middle class Americans pay today.
According to the Times Report, administration officials said the plan would require those making “more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers.”
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.
Although this is a great idea, suggested by many millionaires including Warren Buffett among others, there is one minor obstacle. It’s a small pledge signed by Congressional Republicans called the Grover Norquist Pledge. Republicans have promised Mr. Norquist that no matter what the situation is, no matter how much revenue the American economy needs, raising taxes would not happen.
So yes, Mr. Obama’s Buffett Plan will be a fair plan, but Grover Norquist and the Republicans will not have it.
