Newspapers / Fayetteville State University Student … / Oct. 5, 2011, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of Fayetteville State University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
i Events Schedule page 12 FSU wins over St. Aug pages Fayetteville State University Student Press ^ijuoicexom FOR Students, By Students October 5, 2011 • Vol. 3, Issue no. 4 axing the u Looking to shore deficit, a goes after a ires Voiee'Ste^'Writer In an effort to reduce the nation's deficit, President Obama has proposed the controver sial “Buffett rule,” which is a tax on those mak ing more than one million dollars in personal ome and investments, and not on businesses. ^ amoiHS poaey to be raised by new bill is approximately $3 trillion dol lars over the next ten years, according to the Obama adminisiration. bill is named after Warren Buffett, a *§^Tn«de hilliQiiaire who lives in Omaha, Ne braska, who is currently ranked the third rich est man in the world. He amassed a $39 billion dollar fortune, and reportedly only paid $7 mil lion in taxes last year. Mr. Buffett doesn’t think that’s enough. his name is being used as the name for , Mr. Buffett has not yet 6r not he agrees with the While the bill, proposed by-President Obama, would raise taxes on those who make over one million dollars a year, Mr Buffett’s idea is to only raise taxes for the “ultra-rich”. While never mentioning what constitutes as “ultra-rich”, Mr. Buffett calculates that it would only affect about 50,000 people. The intent of the bill is to make sure that citizens are paying the same ratio in taxes. Due to the cap in the current tax code, the rate is the same for all those who make more than one million. Which means those making one million, $50 million and $1 billion all pay the same percentage in taxes. Many Americans have voiced their approval of the proposed tax plan. Lucas Wacker, a commenter on CNNMoney. fcom, makes a little over $62,000 a year, and yet feels that he and his wife live a comfortable enough life that they could actually pay a high er percentage of taxes. “I feel if it would hon estly make a difference, I could easily pump an other 2-3 percent into taxes without having to change my lifestyle at all.” Many Republicans, however, have spoken out against the proposed bill, even referring to it as “class warfare.” Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, is one who agrees with this sentiment. “We do not want to stagnate this economy by raising taxes.” “It adds further instability to our system, more uncertainty and it punishes job creation and those people who create jobs,” said Re publican, Paul Ryan in an interview with Fox News Sunday. “I think it’s not fair to say that wealthy peo ple don’t pay their fair share. They pay a much higher percentage of their mcome, they have a higher rate than people who make less,” said New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, in an interview with CBS. While this may be true, the Buffett rule actu ally only applies to the top 0.3 percent of wage earners, according to an article in The Los An geles Times. In 2009, 22,000 people making more than $1-million a year paid less than 15 percent of their income in taxes. Currently Americans who make more than one million dollars pay 29 percent of their in come, while those who make less than one mil lion dollars, their rates vary, according to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) website. While about 73 percent of Americans are behind this plan, and many millionaires and billionaries are not, one thing that President Obama wants to make clear is that cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are non-negotiable without generating some form of revenue. Concessions have akeady been made toward Medicare including freezing the income threshold to the level it was in 2010, and issuing states’ “block grants” for Medicaid, giving them one lump sum of funds for the program, overall cut ting about $I trillion from that budget. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (R) feels that this is all a political ploy by the president that will do little to actually reduce our deficit by a signifi cant amount. “The truth of the matter is if you raise taxes on billionaires and millionaires it adds a de mi nimis amount of money to the Treasury to pay off the debt.” The bottom line is easy. We need to reduce America’s deficit. The problem however, is at whose expense? For More information on the Buffett Tax Proposal go to http://alturl.com/qy8yk. Currently Americans who make more than one million dollars pay 29 percent of their income, while those who make less than one million dollars, their rates vary,
Fayetteville State University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 5, 2011, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75