Buffett Tax Gimmick Derided By All Sides

Obama-Buffet Hypocrisy!
Buffet Hasn't Paid Taxes Since 2002
The Buffett Rule Is A Gimmick!

Update on Senate vote on the Buffett Rule - increased tax on millionaires .  The vote required 60 votes for the motion to proceed.  The final vote  was 51 to 45. The vote followed party lines with Democrats voting for an Republicans voting against except for two votes,  Maine's Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted with Democrats to allow the measure to proceed and Arkansas Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor voted to block it.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) said the clash shows “who is listening to the American people and focusing on their priorities. President Obama wants higher taxes; Republicans want more jobs.”  As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly pointed out, “By wasting so much time on this political gimmick that even Democrats admit won’t solve our larger problems, it’s shown the president is more interested in misleading people than he is in leading.”

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Today in Washington, D.C. - April 16, 2011: [2 Days Left. 2012 Tax Filling Deadline is 4/17!]
Congress is scheduled to be back in session today. The House is scheduled to reconvene at 2 pm but there is no identified agenda currently posted. The Senate will definitely reconvene at 2 pm today and resume consideration of S. 2230, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) Buffett Tax bill. At 4:30 pm today, the Senate will consider the nomination of Stephanie Dawn Thacker to be a judge for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and will vote on his nomination an hour later. It will then procedure to vote on cloture on the Democrats motion to proceed to the Buffett Tax, S. 2230.

Yes indeed,  the Senate will be voting this evening on whether to take up President Obama’s Buffett Tax proposal. Yet the more time the president spends pushing for this tax, the more people are acknowledging it will do next to nothing to address any of the key problems facing this country: it won’t create jobs, it won’t lower gas prices, and it is a drop in the sea of our national debt.

Describing the tax hike, CNN’s Candy Crowly writes today, “A minimum 30% tax on million-dollar incomes won't do much to eat away at the nation's debt, it won't create jobs, and no one expects it to get through the Democratic-controlled Senate, much less the Republican-majority House.” Interviewing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner yesterday, CBS’ Bob Schieffer asked, “You know, the truth is, you and I both know that this has absolutely no chance of passing the Senate and even less chance of passing the House. Isn`t it just kind of a publicity stunt to get the Republicans on record as being against it?” Even Bill Keller, former executive editor of The New York Times writes that when Obama makes the Buffett Tax “the center of his narrative, he sounds a little desperate.” And former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) acknowledged on MSNBC this morning, “My belief is this is more symbolic.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, “President Obama’s sales pitch for the so-called Buffett Rule is simple: It’s only fair that those who make more than $1 million a year should pay a higher tax rate than middle-class workers. Here’s what he tends not to mention: For the most part, they already do.” And The Wall Street Journal editors noted Saturday, “The case for the Buffett tax keeps eroding. When President Obama announced the idea, he said it would help ‘stabilize our debt and deficits over the next decade.’ Then came the inconvenient revelation that the new 30% millionaire's tax would raise only $46.7 billion over 10 years, and would leave about 99.5% of the deficit intact in 2013. It was a far cry from ‘stabilizing the debt.’”

Indeed, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) writes in an op-ed for Politico today, “For all the political chest-thumping surrounding this proposal, the new tax will bring in less than $5 billion per year. That represents 0.4 percent of annual individual income taxes paid — or enough to pay one week’s interest on the national debt. . . . The Buffett Tax is bad economics and bad fiscal policy. It’s a distraction from the broader, bipartisan effort now underway to achieve the basic tax reform needed to unleash a true jobs recovery.”

As Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) explains in an op-ed, for Investor's Business Daily “The bill is a political gimmick that's supposed to distract Americans from the president's miserable record instead of solving problems. Americans know by now that the bill won't create a single job and it won't ease the pain at the pump. And President Obama and the White House have finally given up pretending that his new tax will balance the budget.”

Charles Krauthammer nails down the point for us "Let's do the math. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates this new ['Buffett Rule'] tax would yield between $4 billion and $5 billion a year. If we collect the Buffett tax for the next 250 years -- a span longer than the life of this republic -- it would not cover the Obama deficit for 2011 alone. As an approach to our mountain of debt, the Buffett Rule is a farce."

In summary: All Sides Are Blasting Buffett Tax! And, The Buffett Tax "Won’t Create Jobs." Nonpartisan reviewers are Crushing The Buffett Tax as "A Hoax On Voters," a "Total Sham," "a Farce," "Desperate.’ Even democrats admit It’s "Not Going To Help." The question now is will all the Democrats now support this sham advanced by President Obama.

BILL KELLER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: “…sounds a little desperate.” (Bill Keller, “The Sweet Spot,” The New York Times, 4/15/12)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN: “…won't do much to eat away at the nation's debt, it won't create jobs, and no one expects it to get through the Democratic-controlled Senate…” (Candy Crowley, “Buffett Rule Would Barely Dent Debt But Fits Nicely Into Obama's Theme,” CNN, 4/16/12)

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC: “…just what does it really accomplish, though?” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 4/16/12)

DANA MILBANK: “President Obama admits it: His proposed ‘Buffett Rule’ tax on millionaires is a gimmick…” (Dana Milbank, “Rebuffing Obama’s Gimmicky ‘Buffett Rule’,” The Washington Post, 4/11/12)

BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS: “…kind of a publicity stunt…?” (CBS’ “Face The Nation,” 4/15/12)

JIM VANDEHEI, POLITICO: “It's total gimmickry. It’s 1% of what you need to actually take care of the deficit.” “There’s a big danger for President Obama in that they become so insanely political in an insanely political culture. Almost everything they do now...” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 4/12/12)

FMR. REP. HAROLD FORD (D-TN): “…not going to help us grow…” Q: “So you support the Buffett rule? FORD: “No, there's a big difference between the Buffett rule and reforming the tax code.” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 4/16/12)

FMR. SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D-WI): “My belief is this is more symbolic.” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 4/16/12)

HOWARD WOLFSON: “We have a deficit of over a trillion dollars. This is not about deficit reduction.” (MSNBC’s “Now With Alex Wagner,” 4/12/12)

UNION LEADER [NH]: “…A Total Sham…The Buffett Rule is not about math or fairness or shared sacrifice. It is simply a cynical ploy to buy the votes of the ignorant and gullible.” (Editorial, “The Buffett Rule: A Total Sham,” Union Leader, 4/12/12)

FOSTER’S DAILY DEMOCRAT [NH]: “Buffett Rule Is A Hoax On Voters … Buffett, schmuffett, President Obama's Buffett Rule has nothing to do with fairness… It is also about distracting voters from the Obama administration's mishandling of the economy.” (Editorial, “Buffett Rule Is A Hoax On Voters,” Foster’s Daily Democrat, 4/12/12)

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL [WI]: “Buffett Rule Is A Political Gimmick That Won’t Work … the Buffett Rule is more likely to spawn a new generation of tax dodges than to usher in a new era of tax fairness. It is, in fact, nothing more than a smoke screen that obscures the possibility of real tax reform.” (Editorial, “Buffett Rule Is A Political Gimmick That Won’t Work,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/11/12)

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER [CA]: “…the latest gimmick…” (“Taxing Those Mean Old Millionaires,” Orange County Register, 4/12/12)

BEN BOYCHUK, THE SACRAMENTO BEE: “As re-election gimmicks go, the ‘Buffett Rule’ is a lame one.” (“Head To Head: Would Rep. Paul Ryan's Tax Plan Improve The U.S. Tax System?” The Sacramento Bee, 4/12/12)

THE ECONOMIST: “What a pity that he is changing tack this time, bashing the rich via gimmicks such as the ‘Buffett rule’ … it is a miserable portent for the future.” (Editorial, “Game On,” The Economist, 4/14/12)

BLOOMBERG NEWS: “The president may be just as happy to have an issue to campaign on as a law to sign.” (“Buffett Rule Or Not, Most Rich People Already Pay,” Bloomberg Businessweek, 4/12/12)

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