Thom Hartmann: The Buffet Rule Bill Battle Begins! [View all]

[thomhartmann]

David Selig, Conservative Strategist vs. Thom Hartmann. In 2010 - just like every two years - every single seat in the House of Representatives was up for election. And thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision earlier that year - outside corporate front groups were given free reign to spend unlimited amounts buying the election. Which they did. Over $300 million was spent in the 2010 midterm election - that's more than a 400% increase in outside spending from the last midterm election in 2006. And because most of that outside money came from big corporations that want deregulation and billionaires who want tax cuts - Tea Party Republicans won in a landslide victory - and have since defend their corporate and billionaire donors relentlessly.

They've blocked the most meager of tax increases on millionaires and billionaires. They've blocked attempts to cut off oil subsidies for transnational oil corporations. They've tried to destroy elements of Dodd-Frank, the Wall Street reform law that gives shareholders a say in CEO pay and ends too-big-to-fail bank bailouts. And all the while they've been attacking working people - voting to end Medicare and replace it with a voucher program - to cut home heating assistance for the poor - and holding unemployment benefits and tax cuts for the middle class hostage in exchange for extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich. It's the best House of Representatives money can buy.

Meanwhile in the Senate - where only 37 of the 100 seats faced re-election in 2010 - there are still Senators who haven't felt the wrath of Citizens United - who aren't bought off - and who are trying to do the right thing. One of those is Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island. Led by Senator Whitehouse - Democrats in the Senate are pushing for a vote on what President Obama has called the “Buffett Rule." It's a rule that will require anyone who makes more than a million bucks to pay a minimum of 30% in taxes regardless of where their income comes from. Keep in mind, the top tax rate right now for people like Warren Buffet's secretary is 35 percent - this is even lower than that.

But with the "Buffett Rule" in place, people like people like Mitt Romney and Paris Hilton - who make their money siting on their butts around the pool waiting for the dividend checks to arrive - will finally pay their fair share in taxes - and not just the maximum 15% they currently pay. Senator Whitehouse is calling the legislation the "Paying a Fair Share Act."

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings