Obama to Push His Millionaire Tax

At the Wall Street Journal, "Obama to Visit Swing State to Push His Millionaire Tax" (via Google):

President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats plan to pressure Republicans this week to support a minimum tax on millionaires to improve the tax system's fairness, though most economic analysts say the measure would do little to dent deficits or boost the economy.

A Senate vote on the measure—one of the Democrats' opening salvos of the 2012 general election campaign—is scheduled for Monday, the day before the annual deadline for filing individual income-tax returns. Democrats have lined up events ahead of the vote to raise the issue's profile: a speech on Tuesday by Mr. Obama in Florida, a swing state, and a campaign event Thursday with Vice President Joe Biden.

Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats aren't expected to win next week's procedural vote, and a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner alluded to the minimum tax on millionaires as a "gimmick." But Democrats want to put Senate Republicans on record voting against the tax. A number of recent public polls show support for raising taxes on millionaires running over 60%.

"Every senator who votes on it will have to examine for himself or herself whether or not they want to vote for a bill that says millionaires and billionaires should not pay taxes on their income at a lower rate than middle-class Americans," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Monday. "And they will have to explain to their constituents why they don't agree with that principle."

Nicknamed the "Buffett Rule" for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who complained that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary, the plan would impose a minimum 30% overall federal tax rate on people earning more than $1 million a year.

Democrats hope the debate can tarnish the GOP's presidential front-runner, Mitt Romney, a former private-equity executive who revealed in January that he paid a 14% effective tax rate in 2010 on income of $21.7 million. The top income-tax rate is 35%.

Proponents say the Buffett Rule is necessary for fairness, to force the wealthy to shoulder more of the deficit-reduction burden.

Actually, not everyone's thrilled with the "fairness" issue, so we'll see how this plays out.