Warren Buffett says he’s “fine” with Barack Obama’s chosen name for a plan to tax millionaires more — the “Buffett Rule” — Fox News reports.
Obama was expected Monday to propose $1.5 trillion in tax increases targeting the wealthy and corporate preferences over the next decade as part of a plan to cut the nation’s long-term deficit by $3 trillion, Bloomberg reports.
Obama’s plan forms his recommendations to the 12-member congressional “super committee” of six Democrat and six Republican lawmakers, which in turn is required to report to Congress by Nov. 23 on ways to trim the deficit.
The president, meantime, will threaten to veto any deficit plan that cuts Medicare benefits if Congress fails to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans, Reuters reports, adding:
“He will veto any bill that takes one dime from the Medicare benefits seniors rely on without asking the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share,” a senior administration official told reporters.
Medicare, for elderly and disabled Americans, and Medicaid for the poor, are viewed by analysts as the biggest contributors to the long-term deficit.
The administration wants high-income earners — those earning $1 million or more a year — to pay at least the same rate as middle-class earners.
The millionaire’s tax — called the “Buffett rule” after billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett — is expected to encounter opposition from congressional Republicans, the LA Times reports.
Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece last month that he and other rich Americans “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.”
(GlobalPost reports: Warren Buffett asks Congress to stop “coddling” the super-rich)
The White House says the “Buffett rule” will be included in the detail of Obama’s plan for long-term deficit reduction, to be detailed Monday, the AP reports.
Obama on Sept. 8, in a rare joint session of the United States Congress, outlined a $447 billion package composed of tax cuts, aid to states and infrastructure spending to kick-start the economy.
According to the AP:
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday he would oppose tax increases to reduce the deficit.
Boehner has urged Congress’ deficit super committee to lay the groundwork for a broad overhaul of the U.S. tax code.
The panel has almost unlimited authority to recommend changes in federal spending and taxes and is working against a deadline of Nov. 23.
If we were to take Buffet’s decade long fight against paying the IRS what Berkshire Hathaway owes in fed taxes, “the Buffet Rule” would more properly be called “the Hypocrit Rule”.
Honestly, the guy is a real piece of work.