President To Seek New Tax Rate For Wealthy

[TampaYankee]

Obama Millionaire's Tax: President To Seek New Tax Rate For Wealthy

By JIM KUHNHENN AP , Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is expected to seek a new base tax rate for the wealthy to ensure that millionaires pay at least at the same percentage as middle income taxpayers.

A White House official said the proposal would be included in the president's proposal for long term deficit reduction that he will announce Monday. The official spoke anonymously because the plan has not been officially announced.

Obama is going to call it the "Buffett Rule" for Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained that rich people like him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers.

Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece last month that he and his rich friends "have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress."

The measure would be in addition to $447 billion in new tax revenue that Obama is seeking to pay for his short-term spending and tax cutting plan to jump start the economy.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he would oppose tax increases to reduce the deficit. Boehner has urged Congress' deficit "supercommittee" to lay the groundwork for a broad overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

The panel has almost unlimited authority to recommend changes in federal spending and taxes and is working against a deadline of Nov. 23.

Boehner said the panel has "only one option, spending cuts and entitlement reforms," a reference to government benefit programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Any broad compromise that clears the bipartisan committee is almost certain to require Democratic agreement to savings from programs such as Social Security and Medicare, along with Republican acquiescence to additional revenues, although any such trade-offs are rarely discussed openly until the last possible moment in negotiations.

Obama's new tax proposal was first reported by The New York Times.

See original article at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/17/obama-tax-plan-millionaires_n_967861.html

[TampaYankee]

Finally!! It's about time Obama did this. For some time I have favored a high income tax bracket increase starting anywhere in the interval $500,000 - $1,000,000 and above in contrast to letting the upper tier Bush Tax Cut expire. I'm sympathetic to truly small business capital needs.

This also takes an argument away from the opponents who could lump the small business guys in with the megamillionaires.

Of course it will never make it out of the House, but it will become part of the next campaign. Anything that helps puncuate the GOP hauling water for the rich Hedge Fund Managers and Big Business while letting the Middle Class and Jobless fend for themselves is all to the good IMO.

[RA1]

We definitely need tax reform. However, as we all know, it has been tried many times before with very limited success. Just like the question of what is the definition of "the" and "sex", one of the problems is the definition of income. Buffett and the like don't delare millions in income or they would be paying millions in taxes, at least not after legal deductions. There already is a minimum tax law so that people with larger incomes cannot pay zero.

There are two sides to every story and the Congress does not enact laws just so their friends, lobbyists, etc. can make money; the ostensible purpose is to offset the depletion of valuable resources or promote certain activities. One point is that this has gotten out of hand, as these things always tend to do.

A big question is, what is "fair"? Should virtually everyone just pay 10% of any money that comes into their hands. That would put a burden on the poor and "middle" class who already pay more than 15% in SS and Medicare taxes + most pay another 5-10% in sales tax. And, that is before any federal income taxes. There are a lot of questions and very few answers.

Whatever happens, it won't last. The first thing will be "fixes" for errors not at first perceived and then the "tinkering" will begin, anew. The pols have to do something to justify their existence.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest EXPAT]

Of course The House will never pass it. They will use the excuse that we need to overhaul the entire tax code and that this fix is only a short term fix. I can hear it now.