Assume for a minute that Obama gets his way and he gets the Buffett Rule through Congress (he won’t; it won’t pass either house), and he signs it. Then what? Well, let’s start with what Obama said it would do when he introduced it back in September
“and that basic principle of fairness, if applied to our tax code, could raise enough money that not only do we pay for our jobs bill but we would stabilize our debt and deficit for the next decade. And as I said when I made the announcement, this is not politics, this is math.
The italics in the quote are mine. So this would stabilize our debt and deficit for the next decade and this is math, not politics. So why don’t we apply a little math to the Buffett Rule. First, how
much money is this 30% tax rate going to bring in?
Well according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation it will raise 5.1 billion dollars in 2013.Now if that was my lottery winnings I would think it a lot of money. But, compare it first to the 2013 project budget (3800 billion) and more importantly the deficit, which is the amount of
money we need to somehow find to make how much we spend and how much we take in
balance (1300 billion)
So let’s do the math. We need 1300 billion. The Buffett Rule would raise 5 billion. Does this sound like it will stabilize our debt and deficit?
This like your spouse telling you that we need to buy a $1000 refrigerator. You know that you have $660 dollars in savings. But, your spouse knows a great way to get the rest of it; we check the couch for change. You do and glory be, you find exactly $1.32; problem solved.