Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) comments on the Paying a Fair Share Act he introduced in the Senate

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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) comments on the Paying a Fair Share Act he introduced in the Senate, which, if passed, would use the Buffett Rule as a model to impose a minimum 30 percent effective federal tax rate on all Americans making more than $1 million per year from all sources combined. Whitehouse says that the publicity surrounding the release of Mitt Romney’s tax returns has “expanded people’s understanding” of loopholes in the tax code.

Beyond the Buffett Rule

Imagine you didn’t know anything about President Barack Obama’s potential opponents, and someone asked how Obama would do facing a former private-equity baron who made a fortune buying and selling companies, sometimes ruthlessly so. Also, this candidate hasn’t held a job in five years, yet he still manages to “earn” around $20 million a year, on which he pays less in taxes than most Americans who work for a living. At a time when the country has become concerned about increasing inequality and the lack of opportunities for Americans who don’t start life at the top, that candidate would seem like just about the ideal opponent.

And it wouldn’t hurt if that candidate were also stiff and robotic and had gone through so many changes of position in his political career that it was apparent to all that he was the most craven and opportunistic of politicians. Put this all together, and I have little doubt that as long as the economy continues to improve—even if that improvement is slower than we’d like—the Obama campaign will not have much trouble beating Mitt Romney to a pulp. What may be more worrisome, however, is whether they’ll squander the opportunity to do so in a way that sets the stage for some meaningful economic change in a second Obama term, particularly on the subject of taxes.

via Beyond the Buffett Rule.