Recent Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Ahead of President Barack Obama's speech promoting the Buffett tax this afternoon in Florida, U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, issued the following statement:

"Instead of delivering political speeches promoting the destructive Buffett tax increase, President Obama should be encouraging his Democrat colleagues in the Senate to work with Congressional Republicans on legislation that would actually create jobs, lower gas prices, and rein in federal government spending. The Democrat-led Senate has failed to pass a formal budget for well over 1,000 days, yet Senate Democrats would rather waste valuable floor time playing election-year class warfare that won't cut the deficit, ease pain at the pump, or put Americans back to work. With nearly 13 million Americans currently unemployed, Washington ought to be discussing serious job-creating legislation that has already passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, rather than partisan policies that would raise taxes on American job creators."

In September of 2011, President Obama stated that the Buffett tax would, "stabilize our debt and deficits for the next decade" and went on to say "this is not politics; this is math."

Yet, the Buffett tax was recently scored by the Joint Committee on Taxation as raising $47 billion over 10 years. This destructive tax hike would raise less than $5 billion per year, which only equals about half of what the federal government spends in one day.

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