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April 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
As Americans scurried to file tax returns by Tuesday, the Senate debated the
Buffett Rule, which would require households earning more than $1 million to
pay at least a 30-percent tax rate.
Central to Obama’s “tax fairness” re-election campaign theme, the
rule is named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who supports it and famously
complains that he pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary.
Republicans argued that raising taxes would hurt the fragile economy.
Fifty-one senators voted for the bill, while 45 senators voted no, effectively
killing it. Republican Senator Susan Collins voted for the tax hike, while
Democratic Senator Mark Pryor voted against it.
A series of pivotal decisions on tax policy are looming at the year-end, when
lower tax rates for all individuals – enacted under former President George
W. Bush – are set to expire. These include estate, capital gains and
dividend tax rates.
Economists worry that partisan wrangling after the presidential and
congressional elections could stall action on those decisions and several
other measures, hobbling the economic recovery.
“Politicians’ time would be better spent working on an overhaul of the
tax system that could actually pass rather than reforms that are likely to
go nowhere,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the non-partisan
Committee for a Responsible Budget.
Republicans say the Buffett measure will do nothing to solve the larger
problem of deficits and unemployment.
“We have a president that seems more interested in pitting people
against each other than he is in doing anything,” said Senate
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
He was hitting on a Republican theme that raising taxes on the rich was
tantamount to class warfare.
On Thursday Republicans – in firm control the House of Representatives – are
expected to debate and likely approve a bill to give a one-year, 20-percent
tax deduction on business income to owners of businesses with fewer than 500
employees.
Republicans are portraying that tax cut as one for “small businesses,”
a group they say the Buffett Rule will harm.
Democrats say the legislation will add to already huge budget deficits, since
Republicans do not include any measures to offset the $46 billion revenue
loss. And they cite studies showing that the tax cut will mainly go to those
with incomes over $200,000 a year.
That measure is not likely to make it through the Senate.
The battle over taxes has been escalating for weeks with the White House
speaking nearly daily about the Buffett Rule.
The Obama campaign played offence last week by releasing the president’s tax
returns several days before the deadline, to put pressure on Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Obama and his wife paid about 20.5 per cent of their income in taxes in 2011,
compared to an estimated 15.4 per cent rate paid by the Romney’s.
Romney, however, has asked for an extension to file his taxes.
A Gallup poll out on Monday said that Americans are split fairly evenly
between those who say their federal tax bill is fair and those who say they
pay too much.
But when asked specifically about how the wealthy are taxed, about 60 per cent
back some kind of Buffett Rule, Gallup’s surveys have found.
“It is a robust finding across whichever polls that ask, you usually get
60 per cent plus that say, ‘yes, higher income are paying too little,'”
Frank Newport, editor in chief of Gallup polling, said.
The polling, telephone interviews with about 1,000 adults, has a margin of
error of 4 percentage points.
Source: agencies
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