By Ben Cohen: Predictably, the Republicans in the Senate blocked the Democrat’s ‘Buffet Rule’ bill that would tax millionaires at at least 30% of their income. It was predictable because of the Republicans pathological need to sabotage any measures that would help the economy – a worrying trait that is fast making their party completely unelectable.

The Buffet Rule: A gimmick to help the Democrats?

In the short term, the Republicans have gotten what they wanted. They have blocked a bill supported heavily by the President and assured the wealthy that they have their interests at heart. The problem is, attitudes towards the wealthy are changing in America, and kick backs to the rich from the political classes are becoming increasingly less acceptable. President Obama is making this a feature of his campaign as witnessed by the early shots he has fired at Romney. Obama is highlighting his opponents extreme wealth and inability to understand the needs of regular Americans, so every move the Republicans make to stop wealth distribution is another round of ammunition for the President.

The proposed 30% tax on millionaires won’t raise a huge amount of revenue – calculations run at about $47 billion over 10 years, a drop in the ocean relative to what is needed to make a dent in the ever deepening deficit. The Democrats clearly knew this when crafting the bill, but chose to propose it anyway knowing the Republicans would oppose it. They did, and now the Democrats will use it to their advantage.

This really is another example of the GOP cutting off its nose to spite its face. They rejected the bill because they have dogmatically and religiously opposed any tax hike proposed by the President. The tactic has been used to paint Obama as a radical socialist, and it has gone on for years. The Republicans even went as far as to prevent Obama from raising the debt ceiling – a borderline treasonous move that could have destroyed the US economy in a matter of weeks. This behavior has simply gone on for too long, and the public is catching on to their incessant wolf crying and name calling.

The Obama and the Democrats will use the rejection to highlight the increasing extremes the Republicans will go to in order to preserve wealth for the rich, and it will most certainly pay dividends, particularly in election year.

There appears to be a trend happening, and a positive one from the Democrat’s perspective. The Republican Party is now so fractured and dysfunctional that they are incapable of following a coherent strategy. They fight battles by kicking and screaming, winning occasionally in the short term, but losing credibility when it comes to the bigger picture. Obama’s election strategists used the Clinton’s short term thinking to out maneuver them over the long run in 2008, and they will no doubt use a similar strategy to nullify whatever the Republicans come up with for Romney. Obama’s strategy based politics appears to be seeping into the Democratic culture, and it is a positive trend. Republicans can only think in the short term because the nature of their party doesn’t allow them to plan for the future. There are too many competing interest groups with contradictory objectives, so they must fight battle by battle rather than plan for the long war.

Policy gimmicks like the ‘Buffet Rule’ allow Democrats to set the agenda for the 2012 election. The choose the topic and make the Republicans fight them on their ground. Regardless of whether the legislation passes, the Democrats win in the long terms because they are making the Republicans look so bad. It’s a simple strategy, and quite an effective one.

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President Barack Obama and Warren Buffett in the Oval Office, July 14, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Senate Republicans defied President Barack Obama on one of his top election-year issues on Monday, derailing a Democratic bill forcing the top US earners to pay at least 30% of their income in taxes.

The vote came the day before Americans’ annual taxes are due.

The 51-45 count along party lines was designed more to win over voters and embarrass senators in close races this election year than to push legislation into law.

Obama denounced the vote, saying: “It’s just plain wrong that millions of middle-class Americans pay a higher share of their income in taxes than some millionaires and billionaires.”

Republicans called the measure a divisive Democratic distraction from the nation’s real problems.

“This legislation will do nothing with regard to job creation, with regard to gas prices, with regard to economic recovery,” said Senator Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican leader.

Monday’s vote was the first time a so-called “Buffett rule” proposal has come to a Senate vote this election year. Citing complaints from billionaire Warren Buffett that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, Obama has said everyone earning at least $1 million a year or more should pay at least 30% of their income in taxes.

With presidential and congressional elections approaching in November, the vote was a glimpse of the broader battle the two parties are waging over an economy that’s still having a tough time creating enough new jobs.

Read more at the Guardian…

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President Barack Obama released tax forms on Friday that reveal he will probably pay a higher tax rate on lower income than likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney in 2011, adding fuel to a Democratic election-year effort to raise taxes on the wealthy.

Obama paid an effective tax rate of 20.5 percent on income of $789,674 last year, the White House said. Romney has estimated he will pay a 15.4 percent tax rate on income of $20.9 million, though he has not filed his return yet.

Obama and his fellow Democrats have spent much of the week touting the “Buffett Rule,” a plan to ensure that millionaires like Romney pay at least 30 percent income tax.

The proposal has almost no chance of overcoming Republican opposition in Congress, but it will provide ammunition for the November 6 presidential and congressional elections as Democrats say their rivals are more concerned with protecting the wealthy than addressing the concerns of less affluent Americans.

Obama’s campaign also aims to exploit the fortune Romney earned over decades as a private-equity executive, valued at up to $250 million.

Campaign manager Jim Messina highlighted the tax shelters and offshore accounts Romney has used to manage his money, and challenged him to release tax returns that would shed more light on his career as head of investment firm Bain Capital.

“What does he have to hide?” Messina said in a statement. “Why did he open a Swiss bank account instead of an American bank account and establish a corporation in Bermuda instead of on our shores?”

Romney pays a lower tax rate than Obama because the Byzantine U.S. tax code favors investment income over wage income, and his lawyers say he fully complies with the law.

Read more at Reuters….

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Senate Democrats are teeing up a vote on the “Buffett Rule” legislation on the eve of Tax Day, and are pledging to push the issue all year as a defining contrast between the parties ahead of the election.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled the cloture vote for April 16, one day before taxes are due, on legislation that would require people making over $1 million to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.

“We’re going to continue pushing this issue all year long. It’s an emerging contrast with Republicans,” said No. 3 Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) on a conference call with reporters Thursday. He said Dems intend to hammer the fact that Republicans want to give even bigger tax cuts to high earners while forcing the middle class to hold the bag.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), would raise some $50 billion in revenue, a small fraction of the deficit.

Read more at TPM…

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