Federal Taxes

The White House's proposed "Buffett Rule" looks like a political winner, at least for now. A new Gallup poll finds that six in 10 Americans support the idea of a law that would require households that earn $1 million or more a year to pay a minimum 30% tax rate, as President Obama has called for. Thirty-seven percent are opposed. Three out of four Democrats favor the plan, while Republicans are split 43% for and 54% against. Among independent voters, 63% back the idea, while 33% oppose it. Last September, Obama called for tax reform that would, in part, ensure that the middle class did not have a higher tax burden than "millionaires and billionaires.

For a Marxist-Leninist socialist, Barack Obama is doing OK. The president released his 2011 tax returns Friday.  All in all, it was a pretty good year: "The president and first lady reported a joint adjusted gross income of $789,674 last year and paid $162,074 in total federal taxes, or about 20.5%. " Go ahead and read the full story if you want.  It talks about Obama's push for the “Buffett rule,” which would raise taxes on the rich -- including him. It also has the obligatory call on Mitt Romney to release his returns.

WASHINGTON - As President Obama mounts an aggressive campaign on what he calls tax fairness, his own tax burden has fallen to the lowest of his time in the White House, lower than many who make far less - including his secretary. The president and first lady reported a joint adjusted gross income of $789,674 last year and paid $162,074 in federal taxes, or about 20.5%, according to the tax return released Friday by the White House. That income keeps the Obamas in the top 1% of taxpayers.

WASHINGTON - President Obama plugged his plan to increase taxes on the wealthy yet again Wednesday, but this time with a new twist - appearing alongside rich people who support his so-called Buffett rule. The proposal has become a favorite political theme for the president, who touted it in a speech last week, then again at events in Florida on Tuesday. The proposal would require that people with annual incomes of $1 million or more pay at least 30% of their income in federal taxes.

President Obama is combining his proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy with a new effort to lower the levy on middle-class Americans. In his fiscal 2013 budget proposal, the president called for abolishing the alternative minimum tax. It was designed years ago to prevent wealthy people from dodging taxes, but nowadays is blindsiding a growing number of middle-income people. The president wants to replace the AMT with the so-called Buffett rule, which would require people making more than $1 million a year to pay at least 30% in taxes.

As everybody knows by now, Warren Buffett - class traitor - pays a smaller share of his income in taxes than does his secretary, Debbie Bosanek. In his State of the Union address Jan. 24, President Obama proposed "the Buffett Rule" to rectify this with a phased-in requirement that all taxpayers making more than $1 million a year must pay federal taxes of at least 30% of their adjusted gross incomes. Who could object? Well, Newt Gingrich - class clown - called the idea "stupid.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney reportedly paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010 on income of $21.7 million. Romney's tax returns show most of his income came from investments. He also gave nearly $3 million combined to charitable causes and the Mormon Church, helping reduce his effective tax rate to less than 14%. The former Massachusetts governor agreed to make public his 2010 federal tax returns, and his estimates for 2011, after opponents on both the left and right charged that he was hiding his income and assets.

Under fire from his GOP rivals, Mitt Romney on Thursday pledged to eventually release his tax returns, but suggested they would be made public only after he had secured the presidential nomination. "I'll release my returns in April, and probably for other years as well,” Romney said at the Republican debate in South Carolina, adding that he would do so if he were the nominee. He swiftly tried to pivot off the issue to President Obama, whom he accused of playing "90 rounds of golf" while doing little to cure the nation's economic woes.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, paid $994,708 in federal taxes on gross income of $3,142,066 in 2010, according to copies of the couple's joint tax return that his campaign released at the start of Thursday night's GOP debate. The 31.5% tax rate paid by the Gingriches is roughly double the amount that rival Mitt Romney said this week he pays on his own, much larger income. Romney said in Thursday night's debate that he would make his 2011 returns public, and perhaps some from earlier years, when the latest return is completed later this year.

King's real message Re "Obamas mark King's birthday by doing something for others," Jan. 17 To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day of service shows that we've forgotten King's true legacy. King was an activist, not a direct service volunteer. Activism and service are both good ways to help somebody else, but they're not interchangeable. In service, we deal with the results of the system: When our neighbors are hungry, we feed them. In activism, we aim to change the system itself: When our neighbors are hungry, we demand a fairer economic structure.