President Reagan Backs the Buffett Rule - The Prequel

With the Senate set to vote one week from today on a Buffett Rule bill that would make sure millionaires and billionaires pay a minimum tax rate of 30 percent, we now present another video of former President Reagan supporting the principle behind the Buffett Rule. In today's video, President Reagan describes a letter he received from an executive who wanted to come to Washington and tell Congress why it's "wrong" that he was able to "take advantage of the present tax code" to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.

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  News & Politics

[vwnclubb]

i wonder how conservatives will spin this?

[Serraph108]

of all the videos to not go viral....

[GooberTheUncouth]

A 10% flat tax would be a tax break for the poor and really stick to the rich like Mitt Romney who pay no taxes!!

[MrVandj1]

*this

[MrVandj1]

Stop voting republicans they are ruining third country. They are not the party of Reagan. They are greedy, lying, pigs.

[vwnclubb]

"if you've got a business, you didn't build that." - Obama. (yeah, that context thing is very important)

[h00kem94]

“Lower, flatter tax rates will give Americans more confidence in the future,” Reagan said that day. “It'll mean if you work overtime or get a raise or a promotion or if you have a small business and are able to turn a profit, more of that extra income will end up where it belongs -- in your wallets, not in Uncle Sam's pockets.”

Too bad there's that whole "context" thing, eh vwnclubb?

[brz1131]

the difference is that Reagan wanted to lower the taxes on the secretary, not raise them to punish the employer

[zackwatt]

If you read the entire transcript from the Reagen Archives...that wasn't the context at all...

The overall message of the speech was to end tax abuses by simplifying the tax code and closing the loop holes. By doing that, the overall tax rate for all Americans and corporations can be brought down, including the capital gains tax. He stressed more money in the citizen's pockets, not Uncle Sam's...

[D4nu]

I'm happy ThinkProgress is at least looking at what Reagan said... because he never would have supported the Buffett tax. He describes the same situation but a vastly different solution. Reagan used this point to kick off the Tax Reform Act of 1986 which lowered rates across all brackets while eliminating tax shelters. This is also called the "2nd Reagan Tax Cut." Hardly support for a "Buffett Tax." Reagan's solution was to lower the secretary's rate. Read a history book ThinkProgress.

[fukenbiker]

Context is that you can't get blood out of a turnip.... half of American households pay no tax at all because they are POOR and the super rich have greedily called for their bombs and their wars and dodged paying for it all and operate our gov't like puppets on strings. That's the context and they should be taxed triple to start with, and own up to exporting all of our jobs in the name of greed, and cheap overseas labor, ROMNEY, are you with us yet? RON PAUL for Prez! Or Obama, don't care!