Back in 1985, President Ronald Reagan said: "We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share."
Almost three decades later, we're still hearing about ultra-high income earners like Warren Buffett paying a lower tax rate than his secretary.
According to the IRS, the wealthiest 400 Americans, who earned an average of roughly $270 million in 2008, paid an average tax rate of just 18.2 percent that year. That's about the same rate paid by a single truck driver in Rhode Island. It's not right, and we need to restore fairness to our tax code.
And next week, we have a key opportunity to do just that. The U.S. Senate has scheduled a vote on the eve of tax day, April 16, on the Paying a Fair Share Act, legislation I introduced to require multi-million-dollar earners to pay a minimum federal tax rate of 30 percent.
Implementing the so-called "Buffett Rule" would restore some badly needed fairness to our tax system. It would also generate an estimated $47 billion in new revenue that could help reduce our federal deficit or repair decaying infrastructure. President Obama has already thrown his weight behind the bill, urging the Senate to pass the Paying a Fair Share Act -- but the GOP has made it clear that they want to safeguard tax loopholes for the ultra-wealthy.
You can lend your voice to this important fight by becoming a citizen cosponsor of the Buffett Rule at www.BuffettRuleBill.com.
This would be a real win-win for middle-class families at a time when so many Americans are fed up with a system that gives special deals to the wealthy and well connected. Polls have shown that Americans across the country strongly support the Buffett Rule. And the Rhode Islanders I've heard from say the same thing: They're feeling more and more squeezed by this economy, but they pay their fair share in taxes, and they expect millionaires and billionaires to do the same.
We need to act now to correct this inequity and show the American people that we are on their side. This is a test of Congress to show that we can give them a straight deal, not just help special interests.
I'm not saying this will be easy -- the reality is that this will be a tough fight. But you know what? It's the right thing to do, and we should keep at it for as long as it takes.
We know the special interests that fought for unfair tax loopholes will fight against the Buffett Rule, and you can bet that they will continue to urge Republicans to oppose our efforts to restore fairness.
That's where you come in. As we get closer to our vote on April 16, we need to demonstrate that there is a groundswell of support to turn the Buffett Rule into law -- and your voice can be part of that groundswell.
Please become a citizen cosponsor of the Paying a Fair Share Act, then call your senators and tell your friends to do the same.
If the American people make their voices heard and put enough pressure on Congress, we can restore fairness in our economic system, do what's right for the middle class, and show that Congress can stand up to special interests.
I hope you'll join me in this fight. It's one worth fighting.
Follow Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SenWhitehouse
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/29/warren-buffett-taxes-berkshire-hathaway_n_941099.html
I'm sure Congress is going to spend that money wisely, just like they always do.
First,the politician molests the english language...
He calls piracy... "fairness".
He calls unfairness... "fairness" ...
Fairness means that all people pay the same tax rate. ,
as in state income tax,sales tax,capital gains tax,SS tax.
Still,in a single rate tax system
a person earning 50K taxed @ 10% will pay 5K in tax,for ..."gov services...
A persion making 10X that income,500K ,taxed @ 10% will pay...50K,10X the taxes
for the SAME ..."gov services"...
Therefore,in a single tax rate system , "distribution of wealth " &
"Robin Hood antics -taking it from the rich,helping the poor "already exist...
Already for the SAME "gov srvices "the poor will pay 5K & the rich 50K.
The socialists have gone crazy in their jealousy against the rich that they want confiscatory rates.
Those will not pass.
The people don't like them & will not accept them.
Or this way. The rich guy pays about 49 million in taxes compared to the truck driver who pays about $13000. All we need is more rich guys.
The AMT already requires many, many non-rich taxpayers to struggle to understand how something written in English could be so incomprensible. The goal of that tax is exactly the same as the Buffet tax, isn't it? Why not make the AMT more clear, make apply only to the truly rich and forget the election year posturing about some new incomprehensible tax?
That is one of the main flaws with the current tax code vis a vis high income earners (and the reason that close to 1,500 people earning over $1 mil paid ZERO federal income taxes in 2009)...
What about the other people who pay ZERO federal income taxes? How many people are we talking about?
"Nearly half of American tax filers will pay no federal income taxes this year, according to data released by the Tax Policy Center.
Some 76 million tax filers, or 46.4 percent of the total, will be exempt from federal income tax in 2011."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/46-percent-of-americans-e_n_886293.html
Sounds to me that one of the "main flaws with the current tax code isn't the 0.6% of people who earn more than $1 mil and pay ZERO tax, but that the real problem is the 46.4% of people in ALL incomes who pay ZERO federal income tax. Maybe, just to be "fair", we should apply the Buffett rule across the board, and make sure EVERYONE pays a minimum of 30% federal income tax. Then you lefties can call the 60% of the income we earn, that government doesn't take in taxes, a "subsidy". Right?
Unfortunately, the American Public is so stupid, that stuff like this is the only thing that can get their attention, and limited intellectual buy-in.
THERE ARE TWO MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH THE AMT.
1) There are all kinds of gimmicks, that exclude various forms of earnings
THE BIGGEST EXCLUSIONS ARE Capital Gains, Dividends, and HedgeFundMGRs=Carried Interest.
FOR STARTERS, Those three items need to have there 15% loopholes removed, and simply tax them as Ordinary Income
SECONDLY, get rid of ALL the AMT exemptions, and complications, and apply it against Adjusted-Gross-Income (AGI); which makes it incredibly easy to determine if it applies to you or not.
2) Because the AMT isn't automatically adjusted for inflation, there is a so-called "Bracket-
Creep", and it needs to be "Fixed" almost every year. The simple fix is to have the IRS automatically adjust it for inflation every two years.
GOP doesn't want to FIX the AMT, they want to eliminate it, therefore they want it to keep coming up every year or so, because it becomes MUST-PASS Legislation, that they can stuff with unrelated amendment, earmarks, & etc. Plus, since it keeps coming up, they hope that one day they can kill it off.
YOU LIE!
There is no special tax "loophole" for the ultra-wealthy in need of defending, Senator Whitehouse. You just want to punish 400 of the wealthiest families, for the crime of being one of the 400 wealthiest families, with a SPECIAL TAX RATE for incomes over $1 million. The Buffet rule isn't tax law "fairness", Senator Whitehouse. Like most progressive legislative proposals, the Buffett rule is a solution to solve a problem created when false assertions are left unchallenged by the facts. The simple fact is, Senator Whitehouse, the ultra-wealthy already DO pay more in taxes, and on average at a higher rate, than do anyone else.
In 2008, the average tax rate paid for ALL returns was 11%, but the average rate paid by those reporting incomes of $1 to $10 million was 25%. Tax returns for incomes of $100k show that the average tax rate paid was 8%; that incomes of $200k paid an average of just 12%. IRS figures from 2008 also show that for incomes of $10 million and up, (including the 400 wealthiest families you want to saddle with a "special tax rate") paid an average tax rate of 22%. In short, Senator Whitehouse, the Buffett rule would solve a problem that doesn't exist.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/27899.html
Zero point six percent is a curiousity, but no, I don't think it's a problem.
15% Tax Dodge for
* Capital Gains
* Dividends
* Hedge Fund Managers, Carried-Interest
NO MORE TAX SUBSIDIES FOR THE WEALTHY,
. . Tax everything as Ordinary Income,
IN FACT, we should go through the Tax Code, and take anything that ISN'T Ordinary-Income, and convert it to Ordinary-Income
When average Americans speculate and win, at Vegas, the Race-Track, the Lottery,
. . THEY ALWAYS PAY FULL Ordinary Income rates, and so should the wealthy.
ACCORDING TO YOU=
Since the wealthy aren't actually paying anywhere near a 35% Rate
. . There is simply no reason to cut that tax rate or any others
SHAME ON YOU, FOR PROMOTING THIS REVERSE-ROBINHOOD NONSENSE !
You seem more than a little confused, ZZ. There's no telling which version of the Robin Hood tale that you are referencing, but NONE of them have Robin Hood "TAXING the rich to give to the government". He's more well known for "STEALING from the rich and giving to the poor". You must have Robin Hood confused with Prince John. He's best known for high taxes, except that Prince John didn't give anything to the poor. My comment is firmly in the "reverse-Prince John" camp.
Are you suggesting that the Federal Government should be Robin Hood? Can you find evidence ANYWHERE in the Declaration or the Constitution that suggests the framers wanted Government to "tax the rich and give to the poor"? I have a copy of the both right here, but I can't find that principle of government anywhere in either of them.
...maybe it's under the "good and plenty" clause... (snicker)
Regarding your second half, I just wanted to point out that American laws, unlike almost all other nations, impose taxes on “U.S. persons”, (citizens and resident aliens or green card holders), no matter where in the world they live and without regard to the location of their income sources. So your best bet is to keep on pointing out the issues in our tax code...because the only way to escape is by renouncing your citizenship, a horrible idea in my opinion.
OK reality check why is Obama putting so much effort into something that really produces so little outcome? So this is it? This is Obama’s big thing to save the country? So the two big things are tax the rich and repeal earned income credit WOW that’s probably .001% of the economy that is thinking large!
So you want to get taxes to where Clinton had them ok that is cool but you are forgetting one important aspect that the last 4 years of Clinton he had a balanced budget ya think that had anything to do with a surplus?
When LBJ was questioned about his "Great Society" caper, where he paid blacks to have unwanted children and he paid for black fathers to desert their family, LBJ replied, "I'll have those n*ggers voting democratic for the next 200 years."
It IS outrageous, but google the quote. I wish the blacks would open their collective eyes and see how the democrats play them like a fiddle.
Taxes on the Individual were higher under Bush than in the 50s and 60s as a percent of GDP
This "Buffett-Rule" is an unfortunate publicity-stunt aimed at moronic OWS-types for electoral-political purposes.
UNFORTUNATELY, the voting public in the USA, is by and large, too ignorant, and ill-informed to be reached with rational arguments.
The most commonly quoted benefit of the Buffett-Rule is $4.7Billion/year
IN 2011, we paid over $456Billion just on Interest-on-the-Debt- BuffettRule- aprox 1%
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REALITY-CHECK= Nothing that isn't a giveaway to the rich will pass the GOP House under any circumstances, as the GOP is the Party of Debt.
Reagan TRIPLED the NationalDebt, GWB DOUBLED the NationalDebt
Cheney told TreasSec Paul O'Neill that "Reagan Proved Deficits Don't Matter"
(well only when Dems are in the WhiteHouse I guess)
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REALITY-CHECK= Debt HAS gone way up under Obama, only a small part of it was due to Obama's Spending
MOST OF IT WAS DUE TO GWB/Cheney Timebombs of Economic Meltdown, Lower TaxReceipts, Higher SafetyNetSpending, Continuing Unfunded Wars, Unfunded MedicareD, Half of the $456Billion in 2011 InterestPayments was due to GWB Debt alone.