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Whitehouse to introduce bill for “Warren Buffet rule”

January 27, 2012

Following up on President Obama’s State of the Union address this week, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse next week plans to introduce legislation intended to ensure than millionaires are taxed at a rate of no less than 30 percent. The president called this as the “Buffet rule,” a reference to super-investor Warren Buffet.

Whitehouse’s office says:

Senator Whitehouse’s Paying a Fair Share Act would codify that proposal, bulwarking the system against gimmickry and abuse.  

The Paying a Fair Share Act would:

  • Ensure that millionaires and billionaires pay at least a 30% effective tax rate;
  • Apply only to taxpayers with income over $1 million – including capital gains and dividends;
  • Require those taxpayers to calculate their effective tax rate under the regular system and pay the higher of their regular rate or 30%;
  • Preserve the incentive for charitable giving;
  • Reduce the deficit by billions of dollars over the next decade [awaiting Joint Committee on Taxation score].
5 Comments leave one →
  1. Mister Guy permalink
    January 28, 2012 1:16 am

    This proposal will go nowhere while the GOP controls the U.S. House. It probably won’t even make it out of the U.S. Senate, and the current electoral prospects for later this year don’t look good for Democrats in the Senate.

  2. January 28, 2012 5:11 pm

    I am proud of Sen. Whitehouse for leading the fight for economic fairness. the wealthy elite need to step up and do their fair share to fix this country. Mitt Romney pays 14% in taxes, a school teacher pays 30%? Not right, not fair, not American.

  3. Mister Guy permalink
    January 28, 2012 10:29 pm

    We need real, comprehensive, progressive tax reform that raises taxes on the corporations (especially multinationals), repeals the Bush tax cuts (which mostly benefited the wealthy), links the AMT to inflation once & for all, raises the national gasoline & diesel tax, closes unnecessary tax code loopholes, and raises the cap on Social Security payroll taxes to at least 90% of national earnings, not some quick fix that only affects millionaires & billionaires. Doing that will yield an additional $4.3 Trillion in revenues over the next decade or so.

  4. February 2, 2012 4:20 pm

    I would really like to see this passed, but with the GOP in charge in the house and the GOP fillibustering everything in the senate. This will probably go nowhere. Why isn’t anyone hittting the GOP with the fact that they are all millionaires and don’t want to raise their own taxes. Way to go Senator Whitehouse. Keep the pressure on and keep bringing this up. Maybe people will eventually get the message of fairness.

  5. walter suman permalink
    February 5, 2012 2:36 am

    Excellent scripture quoted by the president.which is from Mathew. Much is given much is required. / Of coarse Mathew says it is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a nettle than a rich man go to heaven…… But Obama did not use it.

    This is one bill to HELP fill in the vacuum left by the greedy orgies that went on.

    Support this bill and fire the ones that vote against it. (a lot of rich in congress)

    By the people for the people ..hello Is Mammon your God?

    AMEN

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