The Buffett rule will get a vote in the Senate today...
By louisehartmann
– but it likely won’t be able to overcome a unified Republican filibuster. President Obama’s proposal would force millionaires and billionaires like Warren Buffet and Mitt Romney to pay at least the same tax rate as working Americans. Currently – America’s super rich take advantage of loopholes created by the Bush tax cuts – and pay far lower rates than even a lot of middle class Americans.
Making the rich pay their fair share in taxes has been a rallying call by both Democratic and Republican Presidents in history – from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan to now Barack Obama. Unfortunately – now that the rules of the Senate have been changed by the Republican minority to require 60-votes to pass anything – and now that the most-corporate friendly House of Representatives elected by over $300 million in corporate spending in 2010 – refuses to consider any sort of tax increases because multi-millionaire lobbyist Grover Norquist won’t let them – then it looks like America’s oligarchs will be let off the hook again.
Republicans are more focused on a $600,000 GSA scandal and whether or not Secret Service Agents cavorted with prostitutes, than actually making our economy work for the middle class again.
Comments
#2
Have to disagree with Thom on his point that the rich took advantage of the Bush tax cuts. The rich actually purchased these cuts. They are just a return on their money.
#3
No, the Buffet rule won't pass. Mainly because Harry Reid did not change the rules of the Senate in 2010 to force them to actually filibuster, and not leave - peeing in a can if they need to. He knew they would block everything, so he's partially responsible for all their "easy" filibusters ever since - FIRE HIM! (And car thief Darrel Issa!).
#4
That Buffett rule is just a PR stunt in the same way as the "benevolent billionaires" giving money to charity. It doesn't mean anything other than having some folks think about those crooks in a different light than what their true nature is. The real discussion should be on getting all those criminals to face justice, perhaps in a court of law if you can find one that they don't own. A good place to start would be in rounding up all the financiers and generals who were responsible for the destruction of Iraq, and that would include everyone who was in a command or supporting role, even going back to the first "war" and getting all of that scum like Madeline Albright who claimed that killing 500,000 children was worth it to send a message to Saddam. When you start hanging those billionaires, instead of treating those worthless wretches as special, then the wars will come to a halt of a sudden and international law can begin to be applied universally.
#5
Three quarters of all Americans polled support the "Buffett Rule." Among Democrats this jumps to 90% in favor. Of course the tea party was not in majority favor, yet this little group of anti-democracy, Koched out numbnuts, once again got their way with Senate Republican 1%ers voting against the best interests of the 99.9%.
You bunch of damn fool tea baggers running around pretending to understand something about the founding of this great country, well guess what, if it was 1776 your republican senators just voted for the best interests of George III, King Koch. For god sake, pull your heads out of Fox's ass and wake up. The rest of us need to RESIST this tyranny with whatever means possible. Where the hell is Sam Adams when you need him?. OCCUPY!
Fox says that Mitt only lies 92% of the time to women!
#6
The least populous 21 Republican states can block any legislation, yet they represent only 16% of our population. We cannot afford this dysfunction at a time of rapid global change. Republican states representing only 33% can pass or defeat any bill.
We need to change the filibuster rule so that it takes the vote of Senators representing 50% of the population to block. Will the Republican 33% allow that to happen?
#7
And how many people have even heard of Sibel Edmonds' new book "Classified Woman" that was published on March 9, 2012 and is now "Out of print-limited availability" at Amazon.com? Every one of the 15 reviewers have given the book a solid 5 stars.
Here is a comment by one reviewer--
"The story of Sibel Edmonds is a window into the real-life criminal world that exists in our own government, as well as many other governments, and about which most American citizens are either uninformed or in denial. There are millions of people all around the world who question the official account of September 11th, 2001, an account incidentally whose credibility has been called into question by the very commission who crafted it. And yet, any mention of 9/11 in any context by anyone other than those who continue to use it to this day to justify war crimes is seen as "crazy," "nutty," or "paranoid." In a rare display of bipartisanship, so-called conservatives and so-called liberals dutifully fall in line and support the War on Terror narrative, happily giving up their rights along the way. It is as if the Bush Administration, and now the Obama Administration, who have been caught red-handed telling lie after lie to support the agendas of the military-industrial complex, the Wall Street bankers, the war profiteers, and the transnational corporate crime syndicate, simply somehow MUST be telling the truth about the crime of the century -- a horrific crime of untold proportions which was committed on live TV, thereby ensuring maximum impact to the psyche. After all, this is America! If the 9/11 crime, and the following alleged cover-up, were a conspiracy by any measure, then surely we would know about it. Somebody would have talked. Somebody would have blown the whistle. It would be impossible to conduct such an elaborate operation without somebody, somewhere in the government coming forth and exposing the criminals ... right?
Well here you have it. In your face. A real-life, 100% credible 9/11 whistleblower. One who has a story whose facts are not even challenged by the government in any real way because it is widely known that those facts can be verified by classified documents in the possession of the government. Instead, those terrified of Sibel Edmonds have waged a war to silence her, using the full power of the Executive Branch to do so, making her the most "classified woman" in American history. This campaign started shortly after 9/11 and is waged to this day as the FBI tries to suppress the publication of this very book, which tells us how important this book must be."
You can, however, listen to Sibel Edmonds' podcast, Boiling Frogs" and/or go to her website:
http://boilingfrogspost.com/
#8
It goes without saying that the Buffett bill is dead. The Republicans rule with the Fillibuster, and if there is a Super Majority to pass the bill, the Buffett Bill has to pass the House with a Republican Majority. The Republicans have perfected their game, they have the perfect formula developed over 30 years since President Reagan. The Republicans have changed our democracy with tax breaks to the Rich who can buy everything, formed their Think Tanks, formed ALEC, and bought our free press.
#9
Just for the heck of it I plugged in my tax software $1,000,000 as capital gains, dividends and wages, each one separately. If you're MFJ and used standard deductions, $1,000,000 would have $981K taxable income. If that was all capital gains your tax rate is 14.6% and the same for dividends. If you are "earning" as wages the same income, your tax rate jumps to 32%. This is nuts. For those in AR, cap gains and div is 6.9% S or MFJ. Forgot to check on wages, but doubt there's much difference. I think the top rate here is 7%. For anyone earning far less in capital gains or dividends, $81K taxable income is taxed at only 2.2%. I've seen tax returns with around that amount and I guarantee you it's no where near 2.2%. More like 25-28%. Must be nice to live on capital gains and dividends. We've got the best Congress money can buy.
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People making more than 6 figures per year paying their fair share of taxes?? It'll happen along about the same time (you know where) freezes over!!!
Of course, with global climate change...I guess anything is possible!!