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'Buffett Rule' is just playing to the crowd
Predictably, conservatives reacted with howls of protest and accused Obama of engaging in class warfare. Obama responded, "This is not class warfare. It's math."
Actually, it's neither. It's election year gimmickry that stands no chance of going anywhere with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Obama knows that, and that's why he considers it safe to propose such a plan now rather than in the first half of his administration when the House was in the hands of Democrats.
Why didn't he propose it then? I think it's because it might actually have become law, and then the Democrats would have owned this new tax policy and have had to answer to voters in future elections. This way, Obama gets to excite the base in time for his re-election campaign with a proposal that won't go anywhere, without having to pay a political price.
As for the Buffett Rule itself, it isn't a bad idea. But it isn't a particularly good one either. The current system, the one Buffett complains about, is inequitable. But the Obama plan would just flip the inequity so the wealthy pay more. We would go from overburdening the middle class to putting the burden on the rich. That would preserve the progressive tax rates, but it wouldn't be progress.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/opinion/navarrette-buffett-rule/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Predictably, conservatives reacted with howls of protest and accused Obama of engaging in class warfare. Obama responded, "This is not class warfare. It's math."
Actually, it's neither. It's election year gimmickry that stands no chance of going anywhere with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Obama knows that, and that's why he considers it safe to propose such a plan now rather than in the first half of his administration when the House was in the hands of Democrats.
Why didn't he propose it then? I think it's because it might actually have become law, and then the Democrats would have owned this new tax policy and have had to answer to voters in future elections. This way, Obama gets to excite the base in time for his re-election campaign with a proposal that won't go anywhere, without having to pay a political price.
As for the Buffett Rule itself, it isn't a bad idea. But it isn't a particularly good one either. The current system, the one Buffett complains about, is inequitable. But the Obama plan would just flip the inequity so the wealthy pay more. We would go from overburdening the middle class to putting the burden on the rich. That would preserve the progressive tax rates, but it wouldn't be progress.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/opinion/navarrette-buffett-rule/index.html?hpt=hp_t2