More thoughts on the "Buffett Rule"....

Wrote a piece yesterday likening the Buffet Rule to an new Alternative Minimum Tax, the one that was originally designed to apply to a few hundred people and now ensnares millions of middle-class taxpayers.  Would like to add some thoughts on how, besides being another government wealth confiscation theme, it would be an almost immediate job-killer as well...

Charles Gasparino in the New York Post:

A “soak the rich” plan makes no sense in under current economic conditions. Soaking the only people left with disposable income to spend and keep working-class Americans working is one of the dumber things you can do at a time when you need the rich to spend more, not less.

In the real world, millionaires react the same way everyone else does when they have less disposable income: They cut back.

And “millionaires” often own the same small businesses that the president vows he wants to help to expand so they can hire more workers.
How does hitting small-businesses owners --whose profits often get taxed at personal-income rates -- with even more taxes incentivize them to hire more workers?

Don’t expect Obama & Co. to supply the answer....

George Savage points out that Obama, with his typically brilliant math skills, has defined "millionaire' as anyone making north of $200K.  You know them as...small business owners:

...how can you, as sole proprietor of the local dry cleaner chain, fund the purchase of new EPA-mandated equipment for your shops? The new machinery, your accountants tell you, will last a long time—at least until the next EPA-mandated upgrade—so you can’t deduct the six-figure purchase price from taxable income this year. And the IRS just siphoned off most of your free cash at the “millionaire and billionaire” rate—thanks, Warren! There’s always savings, but your account is still tapped out from the new mandatory low-flow toilets in the recently upgraded ADA-compliant bathrooms, illuminated by costly-but-dim fluorescent fixtures.

You have three choices: 1) lay some employees off and close one of your shops; 2) borrow the money. Debt is tax-free and interest is tax-deductible. Such a deal! What could possibly go wrong with this approach? 3) Go out of business entirely, exchanging entrepreneurship for a job with a paycheck. Maybe your new company will enjoy a waiver from federal taxes, like the one General Electric seems to have....

More economic madness from inside the liberal asylum. I hear Obama is going to do another "speaking tour" to pimp the "Buffett Rule". Expect it to go over as well as Spinal Tap's "new direction"....