Republicans scuttle Obama’s Buffett Rule

Republicans in the US Senate have blocked the Buffett Rule bill, which would have put a 30-percent minimum tax on people earning over $1 million a year. The 51 to 45 vote was mostly on party lines, with nearly all Republicans voting against the measure. It fell nine short of the 60 votes needed to pass the bill. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader, said that the bill won’t create jobs or address the $15.6 trillion national debt. “By wasting so much time on this political gimmick that even Democrats admit won’t solve our larger problems, it’s shown the president is more interested in misleading people than he is in leading,” McConnell said. “To most people, what’s fair about America is that they can earn their success and expect to be rewarded for it,” he added. Republicans’ opposition to the bill is likely to work against them in the November presidential election as Democrats seek to takeadvantage of public support for the idea. A Gallup poll released last week indicated 60% of voters support the measure. Senator Charles Schumer of New York pledged his fellow Democrats would return to the issue repeatedly on the campaign trail over the next six months to increase the pressure on the Republicans. “Republicans want to give even further tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, while we think the very wealthy should share in more sacrifice so the burden doesn’t fall on the middle class,” Schumer said. President Barack Obama had been campaigning for the legislation across the country for the past several months. In a statement issued after the vote, Obama criticized the Republicans for blocking what he called a “common sense” idea. “At a time when we have significant deficits to close and serious investments to make, to strengthen our economy, we simply cannot afford to keep spending money on tax cuts that the wealthiest Americans don’t need and didn’t ask for,” Obama said. "Tonight, Senate Republicans voted to block the Buffett Rule, choosing once again to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest few Americans at the expense of the middle class," the US president added. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, is a version of a proposal made last year by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. In a famous statement, which has become central to Obama's "tax fairness" reelection campaign theme, Buffett said that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.