Warren Buffett

Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

Warren Buffett is by now no stranger to the national debate over federal tax policy. In 2009, he penned a New York Times op-ed calling for "truly major changes in both taxes and outlays." Two years later, he returned to the Times with a widely publicized call for large tax increases on the "super-rich," noting that his own effective federal tax rate (17 percent) was far less than his employees' rates (ranging from 33 to 41 percent). President Obama liked the idea so much, he called for Congress to pass "the Buffett Rule" in his 2012 state of the union address.

President Obama has implied that he himself would pay more under the Buffett Rule--and that he supports it anyway. But according to tax returns released today by the White House, the Obamas wouldn't have to pay higher taxes under the Buffett Rule.

“Look, I want folks to get rich in this country,” Mr. Obama said. “I think it’s wonderful when people are successful. That’s part of the American dream.”—New York Times

But the president would, it seems, rather distract audiences by talking about the "Buffett Rule."

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New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a proponent of raising taxes on everyone, criticized President Obama for using theatrics to trumpet his plan to raise taxes on the rich. "The Buffett thing is just theatrics," Bloomberg said this morning on NBC's Meet the Press.

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In his recently released deficit plan, President Obama lays out the “Buffett Rule” (named, of course, for Warren Buffett, the famous investor and supporter of Obama). The rule, as Obama defines it, is “that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.”

Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed last week making his case for higher taxes on the rich, like himself, who he said shouldn't pay at lower marginal rates than their underlings—and indeed Buffett paid a relatively paltry $6.9 million in taxes last year.