Senate GOP blocks Obama's 'Buffett rule' for minimum tax rate on millionaires

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Senate Republicans blocked President Obama's so-called "Buffett Rule," as the proposed minimum tax rate for millionaires failed to advance in a procedural vote Monday.

The measure received majority support, 51-45, but 60 votes were required for the legislation to advance.

The anti-climactic outcome was no surprise to anyone in a vote that was designed more to win over voters and embarrass senators in close races than to push legislation into law.

At the White House, Obama denounced the vote, saying Republicans chose "once again to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest few Americans at the expense of the middle class." In a statement issued after the vote, he said he would keep pressing Congress to help the middle class.

"It's just plain wrong that millions of middle-class Americans pay a higher share of their income in taxes than some millionaires and billionaires," he said.

Republicans called the measure a divisive Democratic distraction from the nation's real problems that would not address the economy's real woes.

"This legislation will do nothing with regard to job creation, with regard to gas prices, with regard to economic recovery," said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader.

Democrats' goal, he said, was "to try to draw attention away from the issues that the American people are most concerned about."

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And now, on to the next election-year gimmick...

[Rokke]

I know the dems believe this is a winner for them. But I think most people recognize it as a political gimmick. If the Senate had produced anything worthwhile in the last several years (decades) maybe this kind of gimmick would have more impact. But they haven't.

[Argyle58]

Sad thing is that the "Buffet Rule" wouldn't touch Warren Buffet, nor any of his super rich cronies, as the "rule" raises taxes on the EARNED income of an individual, not the investment income. The "Buffett Rule" is more about an impediment to the creation of wealth than the taxation of wealthy.

[saveliberty]

Doesn't Warren Buffett owe back taxes?