[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 54 (Monday, April 16, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2288-S2289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              BUFFETT RULE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, if there is one thing on which every 
American can agree right now it is that we have serious challenges in 
this country and that time is not on our side. Action needs to be taken 
soon. To cite a few things, everybody is holding their breath waiting 
for the Federal debt to catch up with us. It is not a question of if, 
it is a question of when. Many young people are basically giving up on 
the American dream. Seniors and those approaching retirement are 
concerned about the safety and sustainability of entitlements. Working 
Americans and those who employ them are frustrated by the growth and 
the reach of government. And nearly 14 million Americans who cannot 
find work are wondering how it got so hard to land a good-paying job in 
what is supposed to be the most prosperous economy on Earth. All these 
people know we are in rough shape. They live it every day and, frankly, 
a lot of them have given up hope that lawmakers here in Washington are 
interested in doing anything at all that would help.
  But the truth is that there is some good news to report out of 
Washington; that is, the growing bipartisan consensus not only about 
the existence of these problems but also about the proper solution. 
Just about everybody agrees that comprehensive tax reform would help 
turn this economy around, strengthen entitlements, spur innovation and 
economic growth, and create jobs.
  The problem is that we have a President who seems more interested in 
pitting people against each other than he is in actually doing what it 
takes to face these challenges head on and to solve them in a 
bipartisan manner. And if anybody had any doubt about that, the 
President's relentless focus on this so-called Buffett tax over the 
past few weeks should have dispelled it.
  This entire debate has been very illuminating for a lot of folks. It 
has revealed a lot about this President. By wasting so much time on 
this political gimmick that even Democrats admit will not solve our 
larger problems, it has shown that the President is actually more 
interested in misleading people than he is in leading. I know that may 
sound a little strong to some, but just step back and think about what 
is going on here. We have a $15 trillion debt. Some call it the most 
predictable crisis in history. We have the largest tax increase in the 
history of the country looming that will hit every single American who 
pays income taxes in less than 9 months from today.
  Well, President Obama looked at the options in front of him, sat down 
with his political advisers, and said: You know what, let's go with a 
poll-tested tax increase on investment and job creation that will not 
fix anything and will not pass anyway, instead of actually doing 
something about the debt and the deficit. It is the same thing on gas 
prices; the President looked at $4-a-gallon gasoline and said: Let's go 
with a poll-tested tax on energy manufacturers, which would increase 
the price at the pump instead of actually doing something to solve the 
problem. Is this not precisely the kind of thing President Obama 
campaigned against in the first place--politics as usual? But that is 
all we get. The worse our problems get, the less serious he becomes. 
The more people coalesce around a bipartisan solution, the more he 
focuses on something that is completely irrelevant or that has 
absolutely no chance of passing.
  We are in a crisis here and, sadly, it is all politics all the time. 
Somewhere along the way this President seems to have forgotten why he 
was elected. For him, it is not about jobs or the economy, it is about 
his idea of fairness, about imposing it on others. And if we lose more 
jobs in the process, oh, well, so be it.
  Just take the Buffett tax. Anytime the President proposed anything in 
the past, he told us how many jobs it would create, whether it was the 
FAA bill, the highway bill, the stimulus--you name it. Apparently, 
those days are over. Nobody is even claiming this creates jobs. It is 
all about the President's idea of fairness now.
  I think Americans are tired of the blame game. They want their 
President to solve problems, not point fingers. They think their 
President should spend his time working on a solution between the two 
parties instead of running around the country trying to distract people 
from his own inability to get the job done, instead of running around 
lecturing everybody on fairness.
  The President is using two arguments in favor of the Buffett tax. 
First, he says it is a matter of fairness. Second, he thinks the 
government would do a better job of investing the money than the people 
he hopes to take it from. First, it is a matter of fairness and, 
second, he assumes the government would do a better job of using that 
money than the people he is taking it from.
  On the first point, I think most people have heard enough about the 
President's notion of fairness to know it does not match up with 
theirs. To most people, what is fair about America is that they can 
earn their success--earn their success--and expect to be rewarded for 
it. Nobody ever crossed an ocean or a desert to come here for 
government health care. People come here because they think everybody 
has a shot at something more than that.
  It is a point my colleague, the junior Senator from Wyoming, hit home 
pretty well this morning in an op-ed he wrote for Investor's Business 
Daily. It is entitled ``Buffett Tax Divides Americans, But Solves 
Nothing.''
  I ask unanimous consent that be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page S2289]]

             [From Investor's Business Daily, Apr. 6, 2012]

           Buffett Tax Divides Americans, but Solves Nothing

                        (By Sen. John Barrasso)

       On Monday, the U.S. Senate will vote on President Obama's 
     Buffett tax. The bill is a political gimmick that's supposed 
     to distract Americans from the president's miserable record 
     instead of solving problems.
       Americans know by now that the bill won't create a single 
     job and it won't ease the pain at the pump. And President 
     Obama and the White House have finally given up pretending 
     that his new tax will balance the budget.
       Even if he did put the new revenue towards the debt, it 
     would only cover what Washington spends in about a day and a 
     half. All this bill does is waste time and continue to push 
     the president's distorted definition of ``fairness.''
       President Obama thinks it's fair that our children and 
     grandchildren will be burdened with debt because of his 
     unprecedented reckless spending. Washington borrows 42 cents 
     of every dollar it spends.
       He thinks it's fair to pile another $40,000 of debt onto 
     every household in the U.S. over the last three years. He 
     thinks it's fair to use college students as props for his 
     campaign-style rallies, without explaining how his bad 
     policies will leave them in debt.
       He thinks it's fair to force hardworking taxpayers to 
     subsidize a wealthy person's purchase of a hybrid luxury 
     car--because it fits his idea for American energy.
       He thinks it's fair to hand out hundreds of millions of tax 
     dollars to politically connected solar energy companies that 
     then go bankrupt.
       He thinks it's fair to tell thousands of workers they won't 
     have jobs because he blocked the Keystone XL pipeline--to 
     solidify the support of a few far left environmentalists.
       And apparently President Obama thinks it's fair that three 
     years of his policies have left us with more people on food 
     stamps, more people in poverty, lower home values, higher gas 
     prices and higher unemployment.
       The American people strongly disagree. To the vast 
     majority, fair means an equal opportunity to pursue their 
     dreams. They also recognize that no man and no government can 
     provide a guarantee of success.
       To President Obama, fair requires nothing less than a 
     totally equal outcome.
       The waves of immigrants who came to our shores over 
     generations did so for freedom and for a chance to succeed. 
     They did not come here to be taken care of, or to have every 
     decision made for them by the government. That's what many of 
     them left behind. When President Obama pushes for equal 
     outcomes instead of equal opportunity, he pits one group of 
     Americans against another. He is telling people it's not 
     right for someone else to have something they don't have. 
     That may be a good campaign tactic, but it's not true--and 
     it's bad for our country.
       One person getting more does not mean anyone else has to 
     get less. In America, it's possible for all of us to prosper. 
     That is part of what made America the best from the very 
     beginning. Here all of us can do better--not at the expense 
     of our neighbors, but by our own effort. Our country's social 
     safety net was established to catch people from falling--not 
     to entangle them so they cannot rise. It certainly should 
     never be used to justify burdening taxpayers with trillions 
     of dollars in new debt. Somewhere along the way, Washington 
     twisted the honorable American impulse to care for the least 
     fortunate among us.
       The Obama definition of ``fairness'' now threatens to 
     produce a culture of dependency that weakens our society.
       Today's debate over this new tax increase demonstrates the 
     two different approaches to this country's future. President 
     Obama may believe it's fair for Washington to dictate the 
     rules so that everyone is equal in the end. Republicans want 
     to promote economic growth for everybody, not equality of 
     outcome at everybody's expense.
       Despite what President Obama believes, true fairness 
     requires equal opportunity, so that all may pursue their 
     dreams. America was founded on that idea. That's what will 
     lead us to a more prosperous future for all.
       Americans deserve policies that promote growth and 
     opportunity, not more taxes and spending.

  Mr. McCONNELL. Here is some of what he wrote. This is Senator 
Barrasso:

       President Obama thinks it's fair that our children and 
     grandchildren will be burdened with debt because of his 
     unprecedented reckless spending. Washington borrows 42 cents 
     of every dollar it spends.

  The President thinks that is fair.

       He thinks it's fair to pile another $40,000 of debt onto 
     every household in the U.S. over the last three years.

  The President thinks that is fair.

       He thinks it's fair to use college students as props for 
     his campaign-style rallies, without explaining how his bad 
     policies will leave them in debt.
       He thinks it's fair to force hardworking taxpayers to 
     subsidize a wealthy person's purchase of a hybrid luxury 
     car--because it fits his idea for American energy.
       He thinks it's fair to hand out hundreds of millions of tax 
     dollars to politically connected solar energy companies that 
     then go bankrupt.
       He thinks it's fair to tell thousands of workers they won't 
     have jobs because he blocked the Keystone XL pipeline--to 
     solidify the support of a few far left environmentalists.
       And apparently, President Obama thinks it's fair that three 
     years of his policies have left us with more people on food 
     stamps, more people in poverty, lower home values, higher gas 
     prices, and higher unemployment.

  Senator Barrasso then explained what he thinks Americans actually 
think fairness consists of: equality of opportunity and freedom for 
everybody to pursue their dreams without government blocking the way.
  For the President, fairness is about taking from some and giving it 
to others. It is about taking from taxpayers and giving it to solar 
companies. It is about taking from the private economy and giving it to 
government workers so they can blow it on an $823,000 awards dinner for 
themselves. It is anything but fair.
  As for the President's second argument--well, you tell me. What about 
the way government spends the money it gets from taxpayers makes 
anybody think they would do a better job with the money they hope to 
get from this tax? Does anybody seriously think the government would do 
a better job spending this money than the people from whom they would 
extract this additional tax? It is completely ludicrous. Until 
Washington can show that it is a better steward of taxpayer dollars, or 
that it knows how to invest in a winner, it should not expect people to 
hand over another penny.
  Here is my point: We have serious problems to address, and the 
President is not behaving seriously. There is a need and a growing 
desire on both sides of the aisle to do something. The President needs 
to step up and provide the serious leadership he promised the American 
people, and our folks--all 306 million people in this country--have 
every right to expect something better.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________