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Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton on Monday took a giant step toward letting Democratic voters know she’s representing the progressive agenda, calling for tax increases and more regulation on Wall Street -- while making a play for a liberal base that has been gravitating toward Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I know as much as anybody, the role Wall Street should play for main street,” said Clinton, who vowed, if elected, to “rein in excessive risks” and appoint regulators to “prosecute firms and individuals” who break the law. Clinton also vowed to increase taxes on large corporations and the country’s highest wage-earners,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama paid $98,169 in taxes on $481,098 income last year, tax returns the White House released Friday show. They paid an effective federal income tax rate of 20.4 percent and donated significantly less to charity than they did the year before. The 42-page document, which included the couple's Illinois state income tax return, shows the Obamas reported donating $59,251 to 32 charities, which helped lower their overall tax bill. The nearly $60,000 in donations represents 12.3 percent of their adjusted gross income.

President Obama insists his so-called "Buffett Rule" — which cannot even pass the Democrat-controlled Senate — is a serious proposal, not just an election-year gimmick. Let's consider the facts. If enacted, the IRS would take 30% of every dollar earned by a targeted subset of the population — in this case, people earning more than $1 million per year. We're told this is necessary because highly successful Americans just aren't pulling their weight or paying their fair share. This line of reasoning begs the question: Is it fair for the IRS to take 30% of anyone's paycheck? Keep in mind...

President Obama favors the so-called Buffet Rule, which would impose a tax surcharge on people with gross adjusted income over $1 million, eventually reaching 30 percent..What do you think? Agree Disagree Not sure

Defeat in the Senate of the class warfare bill known as the Buffett Rule, gives conservatives something to crow about, liberals something to whine about and the president something to campaign on in his reelection campaign. The latter was probably the intention all along. But the almost religious desire to soak the rich has become pathological among Democrats and leftists. Two ballot initiatives in California would pile on, and you can bet we haven’t heard the last of Barack Obama singing the praises of disproportionately taking money from people who make more than you do. What’s behind this, other than...

I cannot think of a better community organizer than our founding President George Washington. His charge to organize thousands of non professional soldiers to fight a war against the well trained and well equipped Brit Redcoats had to be at least as difficult as President Obama's tireless efforts to round up fellow travelers on the south side of Chicago to harass banks for not lending to people who could not repay loans. Although, we know nothing about Obama's early financing, except that it probably was gifted to him by a sheik, or two, George Washington married into money through his...

Reporting from Washington— Republican-led opposition blocked the 'Buffett rule' from advancing in the Senate, turning back an election year effort by President Obama to slap a new tax rate on those earning beyond $1 million a year. Nearly all Republicans voted against the measure, a potentially risky move at a time when 60% of voters support the measure, according to a recent Gallup poll, as a way to ensure wealthy Americans pay their fair share of taxes. Democrats are likely to revive the effort in coming months. “Continuing to allow some of the wealthiest Americans to use special tax breaks...

Looks like The Daily Kos and the likes have received their marching orders...President Obama is no different than Ronald Reagan. Check out their latest propaganda! I suppose this will play on  throughout the election cycle.While we've already picked apart the liberal argument that Reagan would have supported the "Buffet Rule", I say god bless or liberal friends...because "they know so much that isn't so" (no pun intended)!Stretching the truth may give you a temporary polling bump,  but that bump fades when people are reminded of the biggest difference between Ronald Reagan and our current leader...RESPECT. Respect from not only Americans but from  those...

Philippe Villers was a little boy in 1940, when his family escaped from Paris only hours before the Nazi invasion and immigrated to the United States. From the harrowing flight of a wartime refugee, Villers went on to earn degrees from Harvard and MIT and to cofound Computervision, a former Fortune 500 company that made him rich. “This country has been good to me,’’ Villers, 76, said. “I’d like to do my part to give back.’’ As part of his effort to give back, Villers has made an unusual request to the federal government: Raise my taxes, please. Villers is...

President Obama used his weekly address to continue pressuring lawmakers to pass his "Buffett Rule” proposal, saying the measure would make the tax code more fair and help fund needed investments to grow the economy. "As many Americans rush to file their taxes this weekend, it’s worth pointing out that we’ve got a tax system that doesn’t always uphold the principle of everyone doing their part," Obama said in the address posted online Saturday. "This is not just about fairness, this is also about growth,” he added. “It’s about being able to make the investments we need to strengthen...

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had a combined income of $789,674 in 2011 but paid a lower tax rate than the president's secretary, who made less than $100,000, the White House confirmed Friday. The Obamas paid an effective rate of 20.5 percent. White House aides would not reveal presidential secretary Anita Breckenridge’s tax rate but confirmed it was higher than the first family's rate. Breckenridge earned $95,000 last year. The Obamas' rate is less than the 30 percent the president wants millionaires to pay under his proposed Buffett Rule.

President Obama and his wife, Michele, gave a total of $48,000 in tax-free gifts to their daughters, according to tax records made public on Friday. The president and his wife separately gave each daughter a $12,000 gift under a section of the federal tax code that exempts such donations from federal taxes. There is nothing illegal about the president’s taking advantage of this tax shelter, but it does raise eyebrows given that he has lamented the myriad tax exemptions used by the wealthy—“millionaires and billionaires” like himself—to pay less in taxes. He has yet to propose a comprehensive plan to...

Stumping for his “Buffett Rule” tax increase in Florida today, President Barack Obama said the following: “For those people who make under $250,000 a year – like 98 percent of American families do – then your taxes don’t go up.” – Barack Obama, April 10, 2012 But since taking office, President Obama has signed into law at least seven new or higher taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year. President Barack Obama’s central campaign promise – a “firm pledge” against “any form of tax increase” on families making less than $250,000 per year – was shattered when he...

President Obama and Democrats have been talking up the Buffett Rule (a minimum 30% tax on people making over $1 million per year) for some time now. So what kind of difference does the Buffett Rule make? I've seen revenue estimates between $30 billion and $40 billion over 10 years, but what kind of difference would that make in the scope of government finances? Not too much.

Barack Obama has spent the last seven months demanding a surtax for the wealthy as a needed revenue resource to balance the federal budget and restore "fairness" to the tax system. In making that case, Obama has often used the anecdote provided to him by multibillionaire Warren Buffett and how his secretary pays a lower tax rate than he does --- although Obama rarely explains that the difference comes from lower tax rates on risk-related income rather than salary, which rewards and encourages further risk-taking and boosts the economy. Now the Joint Committee on Taxation has scored Obama's Buffett Rule,...

President Barack Obama is making his reelection about raising the taxes of an Omaha billionaire who is volunteering for the honor. The so-called Buffett Rule to make millionaires and billionaires pay at least 30 percent in taxes is such an obvious exercise in poll-driven populism, it should come with cross-tabs attached. It shows that as an economist, David Axelrod is a hell of a political consultant. It is a non-solution to a non-problem, the intellectual basis of which is a badly distorted anecdote repeated over and over. By now, if you haven’t heard that Warren Buffett pays a lower tax...

Whatever else they are, the super-rich have now become political props. We can thank President Obama and Mitt Romney for this. Obama thinks he can ride resentment against the rich into the White House for a second term; and Republican Romney's fortune, estimated at $190 million or more, qualifies him as super-rich. By all means, Congress should pass the "Buffett Tax," named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who noted that his 2010 tax rate (17.4 percent) was about half his secretary's. The explanation is that Buffett's income comes mostly from dividends and capital gains - profits on sales of stocks and...

Remember the moment in 2008 when Charlie Gibson of ABC News asked Senator Barack Obama why he would support raising the capital gains tax even though "revenues from the tax increased" when the rate fell? Mr. Obama's famous reply: "I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness." Well, we were warned. Here we are four years later, and President Obama on Tuesday night linked the term "fair" to U.S. tax and economic policy seven times. The U.S. economy is still hobbling out of recession, real family incomes are falling and 14 million Americans are unemployed,...

Hypocrisy: As the great investor's secretary sat with the first lady at the State of the Union, the president spoke of economic "fairness." Is it fair to make a supporter wealthier at the expense of the American people? During the 2008 campaign, candidate Barack Obama cited billionaire Warren Buffett as one of his economic muses. In the 2012 State of the Union address Tuesday night, the president returned to his advocacy of the "Buffett rule," a proposed minimum tax on millionaires and billionaires. To highlight his theme of "fairness," there in the first lady's box sat Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek,...

State of the Union to highlight Buffett rule as secretary sits in First Lady's box By Stephanie Condon Topics Economy , Campaign 2012 , Obama Administration Just hours after his potential Republican rival Mitt Romney revealed he paid a 14.5 percent tax rate on his $42 million in earnings in the past two years, President Obama on Tuesday night plans to use the ultimate platform -- his State of the Union address -- to charge that it's wrong to let millionaires pay so little into the system. In his speech before a joint session of Congress tonight, Mr. Obama will...