The Buffett Rule? Maybe we should call it the REAGAN RULE.

The Buffett Rule? Maybe we should call it the REAGAN RULE.

When President Obama released his plan for “the Buffett rule,” which involves closing tax loopholes and ensuring that millionaires pay their fair share in taxes, he explained that “middle-class families shouldn’t be paying higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires.” “Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett,” he said. Ever since, many Republicans have been attacking Obama for inciting “class warfare.” “It looks like the President wants to move down the class warfare path,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). “I don’t think I would describe class warfare as leadership,” agreed Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH).

However, if calling for an end to millionaires having lower tax rates than their secretaries is class warfare, Obama is only the latest class warrior to occupy the Oval Office.

In a June 6, 1985 speech at Northside High School in Atlanta, Georgia, then President Ronald Reagan explained that tax loopholes allowing a millionaire to pay lower taxes that a bus driver were “crazy,” because they allowed the “truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share”:

"We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. [...] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?"

Obama and Reagan's remarks.....side by side:

A recent Daily Kos/SEIU “State of the Nation” poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found that 73 percent of Americans, including 66 percent of Republicans, favor the Buffett rule. Remember, it was Reagan who completely equalized the tax treatment of investment income and wage income, which is currently one of the key tax disparities that allows the wealthy to dramatically lower their tax rates.

As the Center for American Progress’ Seth Hanlon and Michael Linden put it, “in calling for the ‘Buffett Rule,’ Obama is merely calling for a return to basic fairness. He is echoing the very same call that Ronald Reagan made 25 years ago. Given the history, maybe we should be calling it the ‘Reagan Rule.’”

thinkprogress.org...

Why I Support "The Ronald Reagan Tax Reform Act of 2011"

Of course, I'm not alone in my nostalgia. I'm joined by the entire Republican leadership in this, but I think our reasons may be quite a bit different. In the spirit of unity, I'd like to suggest to Republicans in Congress that they look closely at the record of their favorite 20th century hero and adopt yet another policy named after the Gipper. I'm no fan of much of President Reagan's legacy, but in a new spirit of bipartisanship, and historical accuracy, I'd like to present Republicans in Congress with an idea: the Ronald Reagan Tax Reform Act of 2011.

A key element of the Reagan lore believed by today's GOP is that Reagan's embrace of "trickle-down economics" is what caused any and all economic growth since the 1980s. In fact, after Reagan implemented his initial tax-slashing plan in 1981, the federal budget deficit started to rapidly balloon. Reagan and his economic advisers were forced to scramble and raised corporate taxes to calm the deficit expansion and stop the economy from spiraling downward. Between 1982 and 1984, Reagan implemented four tax hikes. In 1986, his Tax Reform Act imposed the largest corporate tax increase in U.S. history. The GDP growth and higher tax revenues enjoyed in the later years of the Reagan presidency were in part because of his willingness to compromise on his early supply-side idolatry. The corporate tax increases that Reagan implemented -- under the more palatable guise of "tax reform" -- bear another lesson for Republicans.

The vast majority of the current Republican Congress has signed on to a pledge peddled by anti-tax purist Grover Norquist, which beholds them to not raise any income taxes by any amount under any circumstances, or to bring in new revenue by closing loopholes. This pledge, which Rep. Ryan's budget loyally adheres to, in effect freezes tax policy in time -- preserving not only Bush's massive and supposedly temporary tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but also a vast mishmash of tax breaks and loopholes for specific industries won by well-funded lobbyists. The problem has become so great that many giant American corporations have become so adept at exploiting loopholes in the tax code that they paid no federal income taxes at all last year -- if Republicans in Congress follow their pledge to Norquist, they won't be able to close a single one of the loopholes that are allowing corporations to avoid paying their fair share.

Even Reagan recognized the difference between just plain raising taxes and simplifying the tax code to cut out loopholes that subsidize corporations. In 1984, he arranged to bring in $50 billion over three years, mainly by closing these loopholes. His 1986 reform act not only included $120 billion in tax hikes for corporations over five years, it also closed $300 billion worth of corporate loopholes.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Perhaps when all Fox News, Conservative Radio,and all other news agencies speak of the Buffett rule...they should call it the Reagan rule.

Even REAGAN believed in closing up corporate tax loopholes....and believed that corporations and the very wealthy should be paying their fair share.

So.....the real question is.....will Fox News and all of conservative radio accuse the very man that the GOP claims all their righteousness too....as a class warfare advocate against the rich....in the same exact way they attack Obama RIGHT NOW??????

That would be a travesty EVERYONE KNOWS that when Reagan was in office -- there were no taxes and everyone was rich!!!! and he built the interstates and put men on Mars. That is what you can do when you have no taxes -- because corporations just do the right thing. And the wealth just trickles down in massive golden showers.

I love Boehner's comment. Don't you know class inequity doesn't exist? (until you point it out, that is) And if you point it out, you're obviously to blame for it. It's kind of like a really foul fart. If no one says anything, you can pretend it never happened, but if you say something, you're to blame, because... well, "he who smelt it, dealt it"...

This similarity between Obama and Reagan shows just how much the parties have changed over the years. Ah, I remember when conservatives were actually conservative.

the difference is reagan was full of sh-t and the republican elite knew it was all talk to get votes and popularity.

obama on the other hand, and he has shown throughout his presidency, that he will try to get things done, even if he fails.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Isn't this amazing? My jaw nearly hit the floor when I first watched this.

This goes against literally all the rhetoric that the GOP is hashing out right now. Reagan may have believed in the wealthy paying lower rates than they were paying when he entered office...but he didn't believe they should be cheating the system and should be paying their FAIR SHARE.

Reagan couldn't win the the nomination in 2012 for the GOP....by their own terms he's a flaming marxist and socialist.

Someone needs to tell Hannity....and Rush!!!

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic



The emperor has such fine clothes

reply to post by randomname

the difference is reagan was full of sh-t and the republican elite knew it was all talk to get votes and popularity. obama on the other hand, and he has shown throughout his presidency, that he will try to get things done, even if he fails.

I'm not one to defend Reagan, but he did close loopholes towards the end of his second term....of course...this is after the damage he caused after drastically dropping capital gains from 70 percent when he first went to office.

I also like Obama's new budget plan....too bad there isn't a chance in hell it will ever pass....it's basically just a campaign tool as the House would never pass it....at least not the current GOP filled house anyway.

Originally posted by randomname
the difference is reagan was full of sh-t and the republican elite knew it was all talk to get votes and popularity.

obama on the other hand, and he has shown throughout his presidency, that he will try to get things done, even if he fails.

Reagan did close a lot of the loopholes. Too bad it only lasted one year. Then G.W. Bush took office on claim to "no new taxes", opened the loopholes back up and taxed the middle class.

and this surprises you?
2nd line

reply to post by leemachino


Read my lips...no new taxes!!!

A thousand points of light!!!!

Whatever you want to call it, from where I'm standing it seems like a pretty good common sense idea.

Smart move from Obama, but golly gee why didn't it come sooner? Lordy, the fact that its an election year... it'd almost make you think that Obama is just doing some good ol' fashioned polickin'.

Left/right is an illusion. It's an illusion in America, it's an illusion in Canada and its the same everywhere else. Obama, Romney, Grewt, Frothy Mixture of Lube and... err Santorum.. and yeah! Even Ron Paul. They're all shills playing the same game.

We won't be fooled again.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.