On the recordApril 16, 2012
Madam President, many Americans sat down last week to prepare their taxes, knowing from Warren Buffett and others that the highest income Americans very often are paying a lower tax rate than they have to. The 400 highest income Americans, the most recent data shows, paid an all-in tax rate of 18.2 percent, on average. Some paid a lot less. One year Warren Buffett paid an 11-percent tax rate. Reuters reported today that about 65 percent of taxpayers who earn more than $1 million face a lower tax rate than the median tax rate for moderate-income earners making $100,000 or less a year. This bill will raise between $47 and $162 billion that could go for deficit reduction or hundreds of thousands of infrastructure jobs or to keep student interest rates at 3.4 percent and end the absurd inequity in our Tax Code that lets a hedge fund billionaire pay a lower tax rate than a Rhode Island truckdriver. I hope my colleagues will vote yes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. The Senator from Arizona.
