Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., attacked Warren Buffett and President Obama apropos of the $1.5 trillion in tax increases introduced by Obama in a Rose Garden speech today, including one millionaire tax rate known as the “Buffett Rule.”
Bachmann repeated a theme of Republican responses to the tax increases, criticing especially Buffett’s call for higher taxes. “If Warren Buffett believes he doesn’t pay enough taxes then he should write a check today to the Treasury,” Bachmann said, “but he and the President shouldn’t enact warfare on the millions of small businesses, on charities and on middle class America with increased tax burdens.”
Bachmann called instead for Obama to “reform the entire tax code . . . and get rid of job killing regulations, including on the energy sector, which will create millions of jobs.” Obama’s plans for the energy sector have been much in the news lately, with the solar company Solyndra failing despite a $535 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department. Meanwhile, Obama has targeted the oil industry for the elimination of subsidies and tax credits, a plan that Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., criticized, going so far as to suggest that it might be “just for [Obama’s] election.”
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., attacked the new tax plan as “class warfare” that demonstrated that Obama is in “campaign mode.”
