Congressional Millionaires To Weigh Obama’s Proposed ‘Buffett Rule’
Somehow I think they’ll find a way to reject it while spinning it to their favor in 2012.
“President Barack Obama’s plan for a new minimum tax rate for people who earn more than $1 million a year will likely affect some of the people who will have a say on whether the rule becomes law.
Namely: Congress.
Obama’s new tax proposal, which has been dubbed the “Buffett rule” after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, may include a change in how capital gains are taxed.
According to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, about 40 percent of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and nearly half of all U.S. senators reported capital gains in 2009.
Among the 176 current members of the House and 48 sitting senators to do so? Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
In contrast to Obama, many of the Republicans running for the GOP presidential nomination have proposed eliminating the capital gains tax.
Currently, according to the Tax Policy Center, the richest 0.1 percent of Americans pay 44 percent of all capital gains taxes, and 68 percent of the tax is paid by the richest 1 percent. The bottom 80 percent of Americans account for less than 3 percent of all capitals gains taxes paid.
Furthermore, according to the Center’s research, 244 current members of Congress were millionaires in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. That figure includes 138 Republicans and 106 Democrats.”