Buffett Rule

Buffett Rule The Buffett Rule is a tax measure that was voted on by the House of Representatives last Wednesday. I chose this article because part of our reading assignment this week was about the branches of the U.S. Government. I will explain what the purpose of the Buffett Rule is. Then I will explain how this rule is viewed by the Republican and Democratic parties. I will explain how the three different branches of our government are involved with this bill. The original intent of the Buffett Rule was that any household that makes more than $1 million would pay at least 30 percent income tax. That way they were not paying less income tax than a middle income family. This rule is named after Warren Buffett the chairman of Berkshire Hathway Inc. Warren Buffett made a statement that he should not be paying lower taxes than what his secretary has to pay. So with that statement the congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama proposed that there should be a minimum tax rate for the millionaires in our nation. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse proposed this bill in April of this year. Even though the Senate is controlled by the Democratic Party they only received 51 yes votes of the 60 needed for this bill to pass. So on April 16th the Senate was not able to push this bill forward to be enacted. On September 19th the Republicans that are in the House of Representatives brought a different version of the Buffett Rule to the floor. There’s was called “The Buffett Rule Act of 2012.” The objective of this version is to allow the wealthy Americans to voluntarily donate money to cut our deficit. Since the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican Party this act was passed on September 19th. The next step for this bill is to go to the Senate to be voted on. Since the Senate is controlled by the Democratic Party I believe this bill will be scrutinized. The Senate can choose to make changes to the bill or veto it completely. The view of the Democratic