The rule would ensure taxpayers earning $1M pay at least 30 percent in taxes. | REUTERS Dems step up on Buffett rule

Democrats are going to make sure you hear a lot about the Buffett Rule this week.

The Obama campaign and key Hill Democrats launched a weeklong offensive Monday to drum up support for the Buffett Rule, which would ensure taxpayers earning more than $1 million pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.


Not surprisingly, Democrats are taking multiple shots at Mitt Romney.

“It all goes back to one simple question: Why should Mitt Romney pay a lower tax rate than average Americans?” said Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, on a conference call Monday. “That’s what this Buffett Rule is about.”

Romney’s tax returns show that he has paid less than 15 percent for his marginal tax rate because his earnings are from investment income that is not taxed like regular income. The Buffett Rule is named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who has argued that he should be paying more of his share in taxes since his secretary has a higher marginal tax rate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has teed up a procedural vote on the Buffett Rule — which would ensure taxpayers earning in excess of $1 million are paying an effective 30 percent tax rate — for April 16, the first day back in Washington for Congress after a two-week recess, and the day before the annual tax deadline. It’s sure to go nowhere, but Senate leaders have vowed to bring up the measure repeatedly before November to ensure the issue stays front and center.

“It’s an opportunity for senators from both political parties to stand up for tax fairness,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

“Are we going to allow the GOP and Mitt Romney to take us back to the days where the decks were stacked against the middle class?” said Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who’s angling for the open Senate seat in Wisconsin and has sponsored the Buffett Rule in the House. “As we recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. It’s time we understand that it’s going to take shared sacrifice and shared responsibility.”

Obama will travel to Florida on Tuesday to push for the Buffett Rule, while Vice President Joe Biden will hit New Hampshire on a campaign swing Thursday to deliver a speech on “tax fairness.” The Obama campaign has also launched a website highlighting the Buffett Rule.

Implementing the Buffett Rule would raise about $46.7 billion over a decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation — a miniscule revenue-raiser for a government that’s run trillion-dollar deficits for four consecutive years.

Republicans have dismissed the Democrats’ maneuvers on the Buffett Rule as a show-vote that will lead nowhere and do little to ease the federal deficit and boost the economy.

“This is yet another proposal from Democrats that won’t create a single job or lower the price at the pump by a penny, but may have the opposite effect,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement last week.