Reduce the US deficit by another 3 trillion. This is the objective of Barack Obama, who today will announce a program of additional measures to give new breath to Washington's coffers. In addition to fiscal consolidation, the new plan developed by the President's staff aims to create new jobs and to secure future investments in education and alternative energy.
Among the various measures, the one that has aroused the most interest is the new tax on the super-rich. Those earning over a million dollars a year will be hit by a minimum tax rate of 35%, equal to that of the middle class. A new setting already renamed "Buffett rule", named after the multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, the third richest man on earth according to the magazine Forbes, who throughout the summer denounced the disproportionate income taxes in the US. The oracle of Omaha, as he is nicknamed for his skills as a soothsayer on the markets, pointed out to Americans that a scrooge like him should "pay at least the tax rate of his secretary". Not the paltry 17% that has so far been required of him. “I want to pay more taxes,” Buffett commented with a heroic attitude from the columns of the New York Times.
According to the same newspaper, the new measure conceived by Obama on cue from the "Bolshevik" entrepreneur (as it has also been defined by many quarters) will hit only 0,3% of American taxpayers, i.e. 450 of the 144 million declarations by income recorded in 2010. In short, not exactly a socialist revolution, but in any case too sharp a swerve for the stomachs of the Republicans, who have the majority in the House. Committed as they are to protecting the wallets of the wealthiest Americans, just a month ago the Conservatives nearly bankrupted the world's largest economy for not accepting the principle of progressive taxes.
After filibustering the debt deal, it seems very unlikely that they could let the anti-millionaires rule pass. "The new taxes are not an option on the table for the bipartisan committee of 12 deputies and senators who must find an agreement to reduce the deficit" by the end of November, warned the Speaker of the House, John Boehner. Buffett may be a wealthy entrepreneur, but his rule is decidedly too left-wing.
