Why the Buffett Rule sets the Bar too low

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/why-buffett-rule-sets-bar-too-low-1334150379

Next Monday most Americans will be filing their income taxes for tax year 2011. This year, though, tax day has special significance. If there’s one clear policy contrast between Democrats and Republicans in the 2012 election, it’s whether America’s richest citizens should be paying more.

Senate Democrats have scheduled a vote Monday on a minimum 30 percent overall federal tax rate for everyone earning more than $1 million a year. It’s nicknamed the “Buffett Rule” in honor of billionaire Warren Buffett who has publicly complained that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

No one in Washington believes the Buffett Rule has any hope of passage this year. It’s largely symbolic. The vote will mark a sharp contrast with Republican Paul Ryan’s plan (enthusiastically endorsed by Mitt Romney) to cut the tax rate on the super rich from 35 percent to 25 percent – rewarding millionaires with a tax cut of at least $150,000 a year. The vote will also serve to highlight that Romney himself paid less than 14 percent on a 2010 income of $21.7 million because so much of his income was in capital gains, taxed at 15 percent.

Hopefully in the weeks and months ahead the White House and the Democrats will emphasize three key realities:

1. The richest 1 percent of Americans is now taking in over 20 percent of total national income, and so far has raked in almost all the gains from this recovery. Thirty years ago, the richest 1 percent got 9 percent of total income. Income and wealth are now more concentrated at the top than they’ve been since the 1920s.

[libinnyandia]

1. The problem is most Americans are ignorant of history and don't have a clue about tax rates in the

past. In the past: you go to war, you raise taxes. Now: you go to war, you cut taxes.

[JDPriestly]

2. K&R

Strongly agree with Robert Reich's view in this article:

The Buffett Rule would generate only about $47 billion in extra revenues over the next decade, according to congressional estimates. Why not restore top rates to what they were before 1980, and match the capital-gains rate to the income-tax rate?

http://www.nationofchange.org/why-buffett-rule-sets-bar-too-low-1334150379

I also strongly recommend Nation of Change. I am not associated with the group (as far as I know) in any way, but they send me an e-mail link to their newsletter, and it is one of the best. I get a lot of e-mails from political blogs and groups, and Nation of Change is one of the few that I read pretty regularly.