Senate Democrats add millionaire tax to jobs bill

[hyphenate]

Source: MSNBC.com

Senate Democrats add millionaire tax to jobs bill
Dems tweak jobs package to win over votes from their own members

updated 40 minutes ago 2011-10-05T20:27:15

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are rewriting portions of President Barack Obama's jobs bill to include a new 5 percent tax on income above $1 million — a proposal that is sure to be blocked by Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday he is changing the plan to make sure the nation's wealthiest families pay their fair share, picking up on a theme the White House has promoted throughout this year's budget battles.

The changes won't affect any of Obama's proposals to cut payroll taxes or provide money for teachers, firefighters and infrastructure. The changes are expected to attract more votes from Democratic senators, though Reid wouldn't predict whether Senate Democrats would unite behind the measure, which is unlikely to get any support from Republicans.

Reid said he plans to bring the bill to the floor next week.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44785065/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

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The GOP doesn't even want the jobs bill, so why they're trying to put that tax into the bill seems pretty useless, anyhow.

[ixion]

1. more Kabuki theater in an attempt to appear populist

it is meaningless in and of itself, as is the so-called jobs bill, which has been anemic from the get go.

We don't need tax breaks and free trade, we don't need more "trickle down" stimulus. We need REAL change.

[RoccoR5955]

2. About time they grew some gonads! n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Good!

It's likely going down in flames anyway, might as well score more political points on it.

[hfojvt]

4. the tax won't mean much unless capital gains are taxed like wages

Most millionaires will still only pay 15% on their capital gains.

I like the idea of adding it to the jobs bill. Because it takes away the Republicans ability to say "I voted against it because I am worried about the deficit monster."

Now what are they gonna say "I voted against it, because it increases taxes on millionaires"?

Of course, they will try to say it without using the last two words. But if it is well known to be a tax on incomes over a million, that puts Republicans in the seemingly untenable position of putting the millionaires ahead of the economy.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

8. Winner! Until cap gains are equally taxed there is no incentive to USE their piles of wealth.

All the wealth in the world doesn't help a nation's economy if people are just sitting on it and using it to make more money. The economy grows when people with wealth USE that wealth to create jobs, products and exports. With capital gains taxes so much lower than income taxes, anyone with enough money to have it "work for them" is less likely to try and profit from it in an arena with higher tax brackets.

[DallasNE]

10. It Depends On How It Is Worded

It sounds like you compute the tax like you always have and then add 5% to taxable income over $1 million. Would that not mean that if you had taxable income of $5 million then there would be an additional 5% added to $4 million, or an additional $20,000, regardless of whether it was capital gains or wages.

[dkf]

5. This is in place of getting rid of exemptions/loopholes.

I'm sorry but I am cynically thinking this protects the same people who originally paid for their loopholes. The extra surtax hits those who couldn't take advantage of these things anyway so it's a double whammy on the schmucks without good lawyers, accountants and connections.

[red dog 1]

12. "Double whammy on the schmucks?"

How many millionaires do you know who are "schmucks without good lawyers, accountants and connections"?

[dkf]

16. It's like the Greeks...the ones who are cheating on their taxes are the ones who aren't affected

By increased rates.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

6. This is a just a faux show of support for the tax concept to look like they're "doing something"

The Dems know that the Jobs bill was going to get zero GOP support from the get go.
Adding this millionaire tax just ensures it will be DOA when it gets to the house floor.

Dems know this... and they never expect it to pass. It's a purposefully weak effort.
They're just trying to drum up more votes by claiming "We tried"

[dtexdem]

7. Putting needed provisions into bills is not useless.

Let the useless in Congress vote against them.

[Firebrand Gary]

9. Good for Reid. Let's keep making it crystal clear what the GOP stands for.

They are wholly submissive to Corporate World.

[julian09]

13. Let the voters see how their congress members voted

especially the faux dems, who vote republican. That could be enough to get someone to
primary the dinos. Obama needs a more progressive base to get anything done
; especially in his last two years,lame duck session of second term. Even if Obama lost we would need a more progressive congress even more to counter repug president,

[Andy823]

11. No matter what

Republicans will NOT vote for anything that would help this economy, or anything at all that president Obama supports, it's that simple. The best thing democrats can do is to put everything they can into action to force republicans to show their true colors, and when they vote NO to making the rich pay their fair share, it just helps a few more people see their true agenda of helping ONLY the rich and to hell with everyone else!

Nothing stands a chance of getting through congress, and every american in the country could write to their republican congress person telling them they WANT the rich to pay more, and they still would say "the american people DON'T want us to tax the JOB CREATORS"! Republicans are committing political suicide with their actions, and even though they have a brain dead base who will only see the truth when they are broke, lose their SS and medicare, lose their jobs and homes, the majority of americans will see through their BS and show their anger by voting them out of office.

[mother earth]

14. Let the gridlock be on display then, OBSTRUCTIONIST GOP

pigs that they are, holding on to the feeding trough while Main Street burns. Let their true colors shine through! The 99% is awake and engaged.

I'm glad the Dems are adding what needs to be added...so it may not see the light of day, but it's about damned time!

I want to see some Dems bowing and echoing the 99%, afterall we've suffered through the kabuki theater of a BS made up tea (Koch Bros.) party of idiots who can barely spell & continue to vote against their pocketbooks, if they even do vote....let their true colors shine for working class America!!!!

Everyone needs to know the people to OUST come election time. Yeah, obviously this fight should have been blazing since day one.

Reform election campaign financing, clear out the lobbyists and secure the sanctity of the vote...is it too much to ask for? Apparently it's going to take 99% of the population to make sure it happens.

[Poll_Blind]

15. This is kabuki theater- the tax was originally on those making more than $250K

Democrats rewrote that portion to bump it up to $1,000,000.

PB

[WingDinger]

17. Why some stupid arbitrary number, like a million?

ramp it quickly from 250,000 on.

[cstanleytech]

18. Yup it does seem a bit pointless, imo they should include something to secure moderate republicans

to support it in congress and the senate. Say like a reduction of the corporate taxes to 23% but doing away with all of the loopholes that companies like GE have been using to pay zero taxes.
That way if they turn it down it can be used in the upcoming elections to get those assholes out of office hopefully by painting them as unpatriotic to america and the american people over party loyalty.