Should the 'Buffett Rule' Become Law? >
'Buffett Rule' Strengthens America's Backbone
The "Buffett rule" levels the playing the field for America's middle class
April 16, 2012
About Tom Harkin:
Tom Harkin is a United States senator from Iowa and the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
As we say in the Midwest, you do not fertilize a tree from the top down, you fertilize the roots. The "Buffet rule" reflects that kind of midwestern wisdom and decency.
[See pictures of Americans searching for work.]
It defies common sense that many middle-class Iowans should pay a higher tax rate than the 400 richest Americans, making over $110 million per year and paying only 18 percent in income taxes. Not only does this fly in the face of the common sense standards of a democratic society, but it also undermines the middle class, the backbone of the American economy, by helping to concentrate wealth among a very few rich Americans, and by denying our country the resources to make the investments that have sustained the middle class—everything from education to infrastructure—that has made America the strongest economy in the world.
The Buffet rule tackles this problem head on and levels the playing the field for America's middle class. It is part of legislation I recently introduced—the Rebuild America Act—and it should become law.
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- Other Arguments
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No — "Buffett rule" does nothing to solve long-term fiscal challenges, would raise little revenue, and is actually unfair
JASON FICHTNER, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University
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#29499
No — The rich already pay higher tax rates than middle-class Americans
ALAN D. VIARD, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
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#3258264
Yes — It is a national disgrace that millionaires pay tax rates substantially lower than middle class taxpayers do
CHUCK COLLINS, Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies
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#48597
No — "The rich" already shoulder the largest share of financing government
ANDREW MOYLAN, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Taxpayers Union
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#57498
No — The president isn't focused on solving real problems like unemployment or the deficit
JONATHAN COLLEGIO, Communications Director for American Crossroads
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#586110
Yes — More fiscal reforms will be required to fix income inequality, but the "Buffett rule" will help share sacrifices
ISABEL SAWHILL, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
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#7170197
Yes — It's high time we ended a system rigged against the middle class
TAMMY BALDWIN, U.S. Representative
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#8105141
Yes — The "Buffett rule" would make our tax system fairer and better able to raise the revenue the country needs
CHUCK MARR, Director of Federal Tax Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
