Free Republic

In his nightly note, BTIG's Dan Greenhaus digs into the "Buffett Tax" and some math on the deficit. First he notes that over the next 10 years, deficits are estimated at around $6 trillion. Then he looks at what socking it to the rich actually gets us. Conclusions. It doesn't get us THAT far towards balancing the budget, but it's not nothing. The below table breaks down actual tax return data from the IRS from 2009, showing how many returns were filed at each income level, what their taxable income was, what tax they paid and what percentage of the...

In his increasingly desperate attempts to pander to a population that has by now entirely given up on the hope, and barely has any change left, Obama is going for broke (or technically the reverse) by setting the class warfare bar just that little bit higher. This time around, his targets are millionaires, who according to the NYT are about to see their taxes soar. Or not: nobody really knows if the proposed "Buffett Rule", affectionately known for crony communist #1, will impact just millionaires income tax, which incidentally is the same as what everyone else is paying, or,...

Populist gesture designed to appeal to his base President Barack Obama, in a populist step designed to appeal to voters, will propose a "Buffett Tax" on people making more than $1 million a year as part of his deficit recommendations to Congress on Monday. Such a proposal, among suggestions to a congressional supercommittee expected to seek up to $3 trillion in deficit savings over 10 years, would appeal to his Democratic base ahead of the 2012 election but likely not raise much in revenues.