The ‘Buffett Bill’ a Bad Idea for America

In recent weeks democrats in the US Senate have contemplated on whether or not to introduce the so called “Buffet Bill,” which would raise the nominal tax rates to a standard 30 percent for all make more than 1 million dollars in income.   The Bill if debated on the Senate floor would be called the ‘Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012’, has been introduced by Senator Sheldon Waterhouse (D-Rhode Island). The White House and Senate Democrats say that the legislation would raise billions for the government, but there is no official estimate from the Congressional Budget Office about how much it would raise.

Senator Sheldon Waterhouse (D-Rhode Island) said in an interview on the bill that:

"These middle class families are really struggling to get by and then they find out that some people with really extremely high incomes are actually paying lower all-in federal tax rate than they are. That's, to them, just not common sense, americans deserve a straight deal and right now they are not getting one from our tax system."

Though Warren Buffet, one of the richest man in America, supports this bill many Republicans have stated that the Bill would prevent many of those high income earners from creating jobs as most of their capital goes to the government in taxes.  The reason that many of the high income earners pay lower taxes than most average Americans is that these Americans earn their income in a different way.  Most of the high income earners in America earn their money through investments and not thorough a standard income like most normal Americans.  And so if the bill is passed then the capital gains tax which most High income earning Americans pay would be raised from 15 to 30 percent which though it would be better for our government as we are in a current state of debt. 

But I believe that it is not as it would hinder the ability of the nation’s top investors from investing in vital parts of our economy as it has been injected into the federal government through taxes.

Ted Barnett a CNN Senior Congressional Producer writes that:

Most Republican strongly oppose raising the capital gains tax because they argue taxing investments at a higher rate will stifle job creation and hurt the economy.

I believe that with the government’s track record on spending our money and investing in projects and ideas that have not produced results.  I feel that if hard working rich Americans were to give more their income, which they could use for private investment and stimulate, instead to the federal government, who spend bills such as the stimulus package.  Then I do not support this bill because it would give the federal government the ability to spend more of our money into useless bills, like the stimulus package.

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