A procedural vote this week, possibly even today, in the US Senate will determine if President Obama’s American Jobs Act even gets to be debated on the Senate floor. The bill doesn’t have a chance of passing the Senate because it, as most legislation now, can’t get the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster.
The bill is projected to create 1.9 million jobs. Like it or hate it, it’s still a concrete proposal to do something about the lack of new jobs. The American public deserves a legislative debate and vote.
The Senate Democrats changed the funding for the jobs bill to a surtax of 5.6% of any income over $1 million to attract more votes. As an example, that would be an extra $5,600 in taxes for someone making $1.1 million.
I predicted this move a while ago simply because it will resonate with most voters regardless of political persuasion.
But not so for the defenders of millionaires. There is actually a new organization called The Tax Relief Coalition that apparently thinks that people making over a million a year pay too much tax. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) are members of the millionaire defender club.
The Coalition claims that 80% of the 2007 taxpayers reporting more than a million dollars in income were “business owners”.
I’ve talked about this sleight of hand statistics before when the issue was people making more than $250,000 a year. With a million dollar income benchmark, it is even more true that the vast, vast, vast majority of these folks are only claiming some income from a business investment (they don’t run the business) or are hedge fund managers, K Street lobbyists, or some other very successful professionals. They’re not Main Street business owners.
In South Carolina there are 4500 taxpayers reporting over a million dollars in income. If the Coalition is correct, then there should be 3600 “business owners” in this income category.
I challenge just one of these “business owners” making over a million a year to contact me to discuss this issue. Just one. Please!!!!