Time for the B.O. Tax?

By Tom Quiner

According to important people, two of the smartest people around are Barack Obama and Warren Buffett.

And I would agree that these are two smart and accomplished men.

They share the same political opinion when it comes to taxation: that the rich, also  known as the most-productive Americans, should be taxed more.

Mr. Buffett says:

“The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings (capital gains and dividends) but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.”

Pat Buchanan responded with a reasonable question:

“Why doesn’t he set an example and send a check for $5 billion to the federal government? He’s got about $40 billion… You get all this noise from these big rich folks. Let them send checks and set an example instead of writing op-eds.”

Mr. Obama had an opportunity to make a sizable donation to the federal treasury when he won his Nobel Peace Prize, but he opted not to.

Doesn’t Mr. Buchanan’s suggestion make sense? Shouldn’t Mr. Obama and Buffet lead by example by donating sizable chunks of their wealth to the IRS because they feel such actions are just and moral?

We could honor them by naming this initiative after them.

We could call this new voluntary tax the Buffett/Obama Tax, or better yet, the B.O. Tax in honor of two great men vying to take the whiff of elitism out of our tax code.

All it takes is these two great men to lead by example. Should they again opt out, we may suspect that there’s something rotten in … Denmark the Democratic Party.