President Obama would like 30 percent to become the new minimum tax rate paid by the wealthy, his spokesman said today.
“It’s a floor, not a ceiling,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the so-called Buffett Rule today. “If that wealthy earner owes more, then obviously the wealthy earner, like everyone, should pay his or her taxes. The 30 percent is a floor.”
Carney also said that the president would still like to eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts — at least as they apply to the wealthy, even if the 30 percent rate contained in the Buffett Rule passes into law. “The President’s approach towards overall individual tax reform would be guided in part by the principle established in the Buffett Rule,” Carney said when asked about the Bush tax cuts. “And certainly in the President’s position, it remains, absent any action on individual tax reform, that the higher-end — upper-income Bush tax cuts should expire.”
