A top House Republican said Sunday that President Barack Obama was engaging "class warfare" with a proposal to tax millionaires at a higher rate.
The so-called "Buffet rule" would make sure millionaires pay about the same tax rate as the employees that work for them. It's named after billionaire Warren Buffet, who has said that he is taxed at a rate of about 17.4 percent, while his secretary is taxed at a rate of about 36 percent.
"If you tax something more, Chris, you get less of it," Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "Class warfare, Chris, may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics. We don't need a system that seeks to divide people and prey on peoples' fear, envy and anxiety. We need a system that creates jobs and innovation, and removes these barriers for entrepreneurs to go out a rehire people. I'm afraid these kinds of tax increases don't work."
"This is being called the 'Buffet rule" because it comes after Warren Buffet, the multi-billionaire owner of Berkshire Hathaway said, 'I get so much of my money from capital gains, I end up paying a lower effective tax rate than my secretary who gets her money in salary,'" Wallace noted. "What about the question of fairness, sir?"
"What he forgets to mention is that is a double tax," Ryan insisted. "Capital gains and dividends are taxes on money that has already been taxed once before based on income... It looks like the president wants to move down the class warfare path. Class warfare will simply divide the country more, attack job creators, divide people and it doesn't grow the economy."
