October 19, 2011 04:26 PM | Permalink |
A change in the Medicare tax that was enacted last year as part of health care reform will take an important but limited first step towards implementing President Obama’s “Buffett Rule,” the principle that tax laws should not allow millionaires to pay a smaller percentage of their income in federal taxes than do middle-class taxpayers. To further implement the Buffett Rule, Congress could end the existing income tax preference for capital gains and dividends or enact the type of surcharge for income exceeding $1 million that Senate Democrats recently proposed.