Obama to propose 'Buffet tax' on wealthy

Taking a cue from billionaire investor Warren Buffet, US President Barack Obama will seek to raise the tax rate on the wealthy so they pay at least as high a percentage as middle-income earners in a deficit reduction plan to be announced Monday.

By News Wires (text)

AP - President Barack Obama is expected to seek a new base tax rate for the wealthy to ensure that millionaires pay at least at the same percentage as middle income taxpayers.

A White House official said the proposal would be included in the president’s proposal for long term deficit reduction that he will announce Monday. The official spoke anonymously because the plan has not been officially announced.

Obama is going to call it the “Buffett Rule” for Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained that rich people like him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers.

Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece last month that he and his rich friends “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.”

The measure would be in addition to $447 billion in new tax revenue that Obama is seeking to pay for his short-term spending and tax cutting plan to jump start the economy.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he would oppose tax increases to reduce the deficit. Boehner has urged Congress’ deficit “supercommittee” to lay the groundwork for a broad overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

The panel has almost unlimited authority to recommend changes in federal spending and taxes and is working against a deadline of Nov. 23.

Boehner said the panel has “only one option, spending cuts and entitlement reforms,” a reference to massive federal benefit programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Any broad compromise that clears the bipartisan committee is almost certain to require Democratic agreement to savings from programs such as the Social Security pension program, along with Republican acquiescence to additional revenues, although any such trade-offs are rarely discussed openly until the last possible moment in negotiations.

Obama’s new tax proposal was first reported by the New York Times.

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Date created : 18/09/2011

Comments (3)

The Buffett Rule It's about Time...

by Anonyme (not verified) - 15/11/2011 - 21:07

I congratulate the 1% of the taxpayers who know that they need to start paying their fare share of taxes like the average american. No loop holes for the rich which are currently supported by the Republican Congress.
Wall street screwed the american people and if John Boehner has his way about it, the Republican house and senate will do the same thing to the american citizens...tax raises on the % of middleclass workers who are fortunate enough to have a job. Boehner will continue to line the pockets of the billionaires and screw the little people.
I'd also like to talk about Boehners spending cuts and entitlement reforms mainly Social Security...I don't know about you but I worked damn hard for my retirement and paid into the social security program for the past 40 years, so where do they come off by calling it an entitlement program. I earned this money, no one will just nilly willy give it to me because I am a nice person. I worked damned hard to pay this and now they want to take it away.
Where is the money that our elected officials put aside for their retirement? Oh that's right, they did not participate in the social security program by the way that Congress stole to pay pet projects of theirs ect. , Truth be known, this is what has caused this crisis for social security and nothing else...
I say that the government employees put all their retirment funds into a pool and divey it up in the entitlement programs and see how they like it....Oh and also pay for their own health care and have the same insurance limits that we have to contend with.
I support Occupy Wall Street...I am sick and tired of the double talk from our polititians. I think Obama would do O.K. job growth ect. if he didn't meet with resistance on every turn by people who I'd say don't want him to suceed at his job.
Questions anyone? Oh that's right, I now have a second job delivering news papers to suppliment my income thanks to the ass holes in Congress and the Senate who took campaign funds from the oil company's and(we subsidize them by the way)for their special projects.

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liberal rich vs. conservative rich

by Tim Temple (not verified) - 20/09/2011 - 01:40

Warren Buffett is tricking them. If Obama actually goes after the rich, the leftist billionaires will refuse support him for the election. If Obama exempts all leftists from the tax, he will lose all the liberal vote and the election.