Free Republic

There goes the Buffett rule. Remember that political gambit, in which billionaire Warren Buffett pretended he was going to pay a much higher tax bill and President Obama pretended that raising rates on millionaires would make a dent in his hemorrhaging budget deficits? In one fell swoop Wednesday, Congress's tax scorekeeper punctured both phony claims. The analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation also showed less wealthy taxpayers why the Buffett ruse would eventually end up exposing them to higher taxes. With Mr. Buffett's help, Mr. Obama promoted the fairy tale that millionaires pay lower tax rates than their middle-class...

Taxes: The Senate hasn't passed a budget in over a thousand days, yet it has time to consider one member's bill to make the no-growth logic of the administration's favorite billionaire the law of the land. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat from the state ranking among the highest in foreclosures and unemployment, would prefer leaving the ship of state to drift rudderlessly. "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it's done, we don't need to do it," Reid told reporters Friday. Reid's idea of getting things done is punting to a supercommittee...

Obama: Millionaires Should Pay At Least 30 Percent in Taxes By Michael O'Brien People earning over $1 million per year should pay an effective tax rate of no less than 30 percent, President Obama said in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. The president laid down one of his most political markers of the annual policy speech by crafting what he called the "Buffett Rule," named after the famous billionaire investor. The president calls for lower taxes on lower-income wage earners but asks for wealthier taxpayers to pay more. "Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you...

*snip* But perhaps most striking is Democrats' decision to jettison a popular method of paying for pieces of President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill, which failed in a bipartisan vote in the Senate. The majority is not looking to tax Americans who make more than $1 million to offset the veterans' jobs provision; rather, they will keep in place current fees for V.A. home loans. The abandonment of the millionaire surtax is a victory for Republicans, who have, heretofore opposed such a measure, and it also signals a significant compromise by Democrats toward improving the nation's persistently poor jobless rate.

Senate Democrats proposed today a 5.0 5.6 percent surtax on the "rich," where they define rich as someone who makes a $1M or more.   Senator Schumer was instrumental in moving the threshold from $250,000 to $1M, apparently because he recognizes the impact it would have on small business, since much of this income is taxed as personal income:  On Wednesday, Schumer said raising taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year, as Obama has long supported, would affect small businesses, an argument that is more associated with Republicans than Democrats. "It also would affect too many small businesses if...

The White House Press Office announced that President Barack Obama will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. this morning — though no topic was announced. Obama is in the middle of a weeks-long push on his jobs bill, which is certain to take up a significant portion of the questioning. We expect him to be asked about the Occupy Wall Street protests, and the killing of U.S.-citizen Anwar al-Awlaki as well. Also expect Obama to be asked about his criticism of Bank of America's $5 fee for checking account customers and his increasingly-combative tone toward Republicans as his reelection...

he Republicans have had 12 hours to digest the news that President Obama plans to propose a "Millionaire's tax" on annual incomes over $1 million. As expected, they're freaking out. And if they had a good argument as to why such a tax was a terrible idea, we'd be happy to say so. But so far anyway, they don't. Obviously, no one likes higher taxes. And it's no surprise that the potential target of higher taxes will squawk in protest as soon as the idea is proposed. But if the country is to begin to find a way out of...

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,...

A top House Republican accused President Obama of appealing to Americans' "fear, envy and anxiety" by pushing a new tax rate on people making more than $1 million annually, saying the "class warfare path" will only hurt the economy. "Class warfare ... may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee, told "Fox News Sunday." The president is planning on proposing the new and higher rate as part of a broader long-term deficit-reduction plan he's unveiling Monday. It will likely include a mix of entitlement reform and...

Utopia! It's the holy grail of egalitarian busybodies far and wide. If only outcomes were equal, as defined by the egalitarians themselves, the world would become a place of balanced chi and seamless harmony. These societal engineers have long believed in their unique intellects and superlative abilities, which qualify them to distribute wealth and contentment to a longing world. Sadly, there's no shortage of these do-gooders. A New York State Assemblyman envisions an increased millionaire tax. If passed, high income earners -- who already bear a disproportionate share of New York's tax burden -- will pitch in an additional 11...

A new study suggests that states that target the rich for tax hikes may pay a stiff price.  It's not just that some wealthy people may flee those states. The bigger problem is that they won't move there.  At least that's the implication of a new analysis of wealthy folks' movements into and out of New Jersey from 1999 through 2008. In all, the state suffered a $70 billion net outflow in wealth from 2004 through 2008, compared with a $98 billion net inflow in the prior five years. The Garden State's reversal in fortune was due to a large...

In a tour to promote his new tax relief plan, Gov. James E. McGreevey last week sat with reporters to review his "three-pronged" FAIR (Fair and Immediate Relief) tax relief plan. The plan includes what McGreevey has dubbed a "millionaires’ tax" that would place a 2.6 percent tax on households making $500,000 or more annually, as well as a 2.5 percent cap on administrative spending and a proposed constitutional convention on property taxes that would allow New Jersey’s citizens to make recommendations to the state legislation. While eating what appeared to be a turkey sandwich, McGreevey said the millionaires’ tax,...