When was the buffett rule proposed

But that doesn't mean they won't have any influence as lawmakers decide how to reform the tax code, slow growth in the country's debt and make investments to strengthen the U. After all, the bipartisan fiscal cliff deal did raise the tax burden on high-income taxpayers in We're no longer maintaining this page.

President Obama's budget blueprint includes a host of oft-proposed tax-the-rich measures along with a handful of new ones, too. Obama's big plans for the middle class. Personal Finance. LendingTree Paid Partner. We also need to consider a Value Added Tax as a partial replacement for income taxes on the middle class.

It would not only relieve most people from ever having to file a tax return, it would also encourage saving and growth, and if refunded at the border, encourage exports.

European countries rely much less heavily than the U. But fairness matters, too. Behavioral experiments done by academic economists have shown that most people will choose a more rather than a less equal distribution of money when given a choice. This preference for fair outcomes is an outgrowth of our evolutionary history that rewarded cooperation and sharing because they led to survival. The Buffet Rule is unlikely to be enacted.

Its significance is more political or symbolic than substantive. It draws attention to the way in which the average citizen fares at the hands of a government that seems increasingly out of touch with their needs and overly influenced by the monies class. How this theme plays out over the coming year will help to determine who wins in November.

Eberly and James H. Stock But this is already the case. The U. IRS data show the average tax rate for the top 1 percent is 24 percent and the average tax rate for the bottom 99 percent is 8.

The low rates we sometimes see from wealthy individuals is because they derive much of their income from investments, which is double taxed anyway. A capital gain or dividend is first taxed at the corporate level, as a corporate profit, then at the shareholder level.

The result is a combined average tax rate of This creates a huge disincentive to invest , ultimately slowing economic growth.

Investment, and through it economic growth, is not something that only benefits the wealthy — it impacts us all. Higher capital investment leads to greater productivity, which leads to higher wages and better living conditions for workers across the income spectrum.

Warren Buffett has made his fortune, and good for him.