The Buffett Rule Is All Politics

This week's reelection campaign agenda for Barack Obama is to push the Buffett Rule.  In another we-versus-them, socialist offensive, Obama hopes to convince Americans that, by increasing  taxes on the rich, America will be a better place and, the 99% of us who aren't rich will all benefit.  In reality, Obama's pushing of the Buffett Rule is like someone digging around in the sofa for some loose change in a futile attempt to retire $10,000 in credit card debt.  In a report released days ago, the U.S. Treasury Department stated that the Buffett Rule will only increase tax revenues by $5 billion per year.  While that may sound like a lot of money, that $5 billion would only cover 4 days of interest payments on our federal debt.

The Buffett Rule is a sham. Barack Obama is using it to rev up his liberal, political base.  A base that hates the rich and who believes that the there can be no limit to the amount of taxes the they should pay.  That hate is founded in the irrational, socialist belief that the rich only got rich off the backs of the poor.  This is why Obama always frames the "Rule" in the context of "social justice" and "fairness".  At the same time, Obama is using it to avoid the real issues of spending and debt that are killing this country.

The reality is that the Buffett Rule won't make anyone, except liberals, feel more "fairly" or "justly" treated. It will hardly reduce the debt or deficits. In fact, Obama will probably use that increase in taxes as an excuse to spend  and waste even more money.  For sure, no one is going to see their taxes go down because of it.  That is especially true for Buffett's s well-paid secretary. This, the very person that Warren Buffett used as an excuse to create the tax plan that now bears his name.

Maybe the Buffett Rule should be that Warren Buffett coughs up the billion dollars in back taxes that he owes this country; something the rest of us could never get away with.  Or, that rich, environmentalist liberals who buy $41,000 Chevy Volts "shouldn't" get a $7500 tax break.  Or, that there should be consequences for a President and his Energy Secretary blowing away billions of taxpayer dollars on  green technology companies who were obviously doomed to fail; like Solyndra.  Obviously, there's a lot of unfairness and social injustice around that's being ignored by this President.