Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: The Buffett Rule: Your Straight Deal on Taxes

[cal04]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-sheldon-whitehouse/the-buffett-rule-your-str_b_1414762.html?ref=yahoo&ir=Yahoo

(snip)
According to the IRS, the wealthiest 400 Americans, who earned an average of roughly $270 million in 2008, paid an average tax rate of just 18.2 percent that year. That's about the same rate paid by a single truck driver in Rhode Island. It's not right, and we need to restore fairness to our tax code.

And next week, we have a key opportunity to do just that. The U.S. Senate has scheduled a vote on the eve of tax day, April 16, on the Paying a Fair Share Act, legislation I introduced to require multi-million-dollar earners to pay a minimum federal tax rate of 30 percent.

Implementing the so-called "Buffett Rule" would restore some badly needed fairness to our tax system. It would also generate an estimated $47 billion in new revenue that could help reduce our federal deficit or repair decaying infrastructure. President Obama has already thrown his weight behind the bill, urging the Senate to pass the Paying a Fair Share Act -- but the GOP has made it clear that they want to safeguard tax loopholes for the ultra-wealthy.

You can lend your voice to this important fight by becoming a citizen cosponsor of the Buffett Rule at http://www.buffettrulebill.com/