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Gingrich Wants Govt To Respect 'Our Religion,' Not 'Every Other Religion'

Allen West Tries To Claim He Never Told Obama To ‘Get The Hell Out’ Of America

‘Morning Joe’ Slams Romney For Medicare Hypocrisy

Green

CHART: Big Oil Backers Of Keystone XL Pipeline Gave Big To Senate GOP Allies

By Josh Israel posted from ThinkProgress Green on Jan 31, 2012 at 11:10 am

Keystone XL Map

Proposed Keystone XL pipeline map

On Monday, 43 Senate Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) introduced legislation to circumvent the Obama administration and approve the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. A ThinkProgress Green analysis reveals at least 35 of the 44 senators backing the proposal have received special interest political action committee contributions from the biggest backers of the pipeline since the start of the 2010 cycle.

$644,400 went to 35 of those senators who have endorsed this measure. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Rob Portman (R-OH) received the most, with $43,500 each. Manchin received $2,500 and the rest went to Republicans.

The most active companies and trade associations lobbying for the pipeline over the last three months were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ConocoPhillips, the Business Roundtable, Shell Oil, ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, Deere & Company, TransCanada Pipelines, and Devon Energy.

Of those, the PACs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, Deere & Company, and Devon Energy all made contributions to federal candidates over the past three years.

Here are their totals:
Read more

Politics

Rep. Allen West Tries To Walk Back Telling Obama To ‘Get The Hell Out’: ‘I Did Not Refer To Any Person Leaving’

By Tanya Somanader on Jan 31, 2012 at 10:36 am

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) once again sparked controversy with a demagogic speech in Florida this past weekend where he demanded that liberals and President Obama “get the hell out of the United States of America.” Now, West is engaged in a rapid backpedal, appearing both on CNN and Fox this morning to insist that what he said is not actually what he said.

On CNN, West demanded that a skeptical host Soledad O’Brien to view the entire speech an realize that “he was simply trying to draw attention to the decline of a country” at the hands of people who hold values that are “not in concert with our constitutional republic.” “And if you can’t understand that,” he added, ” please come down to South Florida, you and I can read the Federalist Papers.” Later on Fox and Friends, West told host Steve Doocy, “I did not refer to any person leaving”:

WEST: The other thing is that I did not refer to any person leaving. If you go back and read the transcript of the message that I gave, it was about equality of achievement, it was about economic dependence, it was about enslaving the American entrepreneur’s will and spirit. That message needs to leave this country. And that was what I was referring to. And I think that anyone that sat back and looked at the entirety of that 12 minute, 45 second speech would understand that we’re talking about a contrast of visions of this country.

Watch both interviews:

Looking back at the transcript as requested, it’s pretty clear that West specifically named “President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and my dear friend, the chairman of the Democrat National Committee [Debbie Wasserman-Schultz]” to “take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States.”

Nonetheless, West has made a practice of lobbing incendiary rhetoric across the aisle and then blaming the news media for the resulting backlash. Reacting to Fox pundit Bob Beckel’s demand that West apologize, a somewhat thin-skinned West shot back, “I think Bob Beckel owes me an apology for saying that he would not refer to me as a Congressional representative nor as a lieutenant colonel, retired.”

Justice

Kansas Agriculture Secretary Asks Federal Government To Let Companies Hire Undocumented Workers In The State

By Amanda Peterson Beadle posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Jan 31, 2012 at 9:52 am

Versions of an extreme immigration law — written by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — has led to fear and an exodus of Latino workers in states like Alabama, Georgia, and Arizona. After watching their crops rot due to a lack of workers in 2011, many farmers are uncertain of what to do in 2012 if they cannot find enough laborers again. Even apple farmers in Washington state were hurt by harmful anti-immigrant laws in other states.

But rather than follow Arizona’s model and run undocumented immigrants out of the state, Kansas Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman is seeking a waiver from the federal government so that companies can hire undocumented workers.

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, Rodman’s goal is “to create a legal, straightforward manner of organizing existing immigrant labor.” He has met with the Department of Homeland Security several times about creating a pilot program to connect employers with undocumented workers through a state-organized network. “I need a waiver,” Rodman told the Associated Press. “It would be good for Kansas agriculture.” Now, details are expected to come out this week about a bill that would create Rodman’s idea of a state-managed worker program:

Mike Beam, senior vice president of the Kansas Livestock Association, said the objective was to secure a reliable, regulated labor pool to the state’s businesses. Despite the recession, there are counties in rural Kansas with unemployment rates half the state average. [...]

Sen. Mark Taddiken, a Clifton Republican and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the state’s labor force needed to be solid to allow agricultural production to expand.

“They’re having trouble finding people,” Taddiken said. “The agricultural sector is looking for reliability.”

Rodman said he would not promote the bill and instead continue to focus on working with the Department of Homeland Security, which has so far neither approved or rejected the idea. And similar to Kansas’ plan, a lawmaker in New Mexico also proposed a state guest worker program in that state to handle the issue of undocumented workers.

NEWS FLASH

Nearly Half Of Americans Live One Financial Shock Away From Poverty | According to a report from the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a D.C. advocacy group, 43 percent of Americans would fall into poverty within three months if they were to experience a sudden financial shock, such as losing a job or facing a medical emergency. “Growing numbers of families have almost no savings or other assets to see them through if they lose their jobs or face a medical crisis,” said Andrea Levere, president of CFED. “Without savings, few will be able to build a more economically secure future, including buying a home, saving for their children’s college educations or building a retirement nest egg.” The tenuous financial position of so many households is due to a combination of “flat wages, the high cost of medical treatment and the nationwide drop in housing values leaving homeowners with less wealth.”

Politics

Morning Briefing: January 31, 2012

By ThinkProgress on Jan 31, 2012 at 9:00 am

Voting is underway in Florida’s GOP presidential primary, and last-minute polls suggest Mitt Romney is heading toward a big win. A new Quinnipiac poll released Monday shows Romney with a double-digit lead over Newt Gingrich. Polls close statewide at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, a full 92 percent of ads that have aired in Florida’s primary have been negative, and they seem to be paying off for the biggest spender, Mitt Romney, who outspent Newt Gingrich at least 5 to 1 in advertising.

Despite a promise of “zero-tolerance” for unethical behavior, House Republicans are facing increasing number of ethics probes. As the 2012 session begins, almost a dozen GOP lawmakers face questions about their financial dealings, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) “has not publicly admonished them.”

Continuing to avoid their pledge to focus on jobs, Congressional Republicans are moving toward a vote on making English the official language of the United States. Their aim is to “put the Obama administration on the defensive.”

House Republicans have seen their unfavorable rating skyrocket to 64 percent, as the public lays blame for ugly partisan battles over the debt ceiling and payroll tax holiday, among other things, at their feet. Republicans started 2011 with a 43 percent favorable rating and 46 percent unfavorable rating. The precipitous drop was a subject at a recent House GOP retreat in Baltimore earlier this month.

Florida Rep. Allen West (R) walked back comments in which he told liberals and President Obama to “get the hell out of America.” Asked by CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien if he was telling liberals to get out of America, West said, “Absolutely not,” adding that he was trying to draw attention to the decline of America.

Following a year when tea party-led Republicans called for steep cuts in government programs, congressional Democrats are looking to new efforts to make wealthy Americans pay their fare share in taxes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) will hold votes on proposals to end tax breaks that corporations and wealthy individuals enjoy.

On a wide bipartisan vote of 93-2 Monday, the Senate voted to start debating the STOCK Act, which would ban members of Congress and their staffs from enriching themselves by using “any non-public information derived from the individual’s position” in Congress. The bill was brought up after media reports showed that lawmakers and staff members profited off stock trades based on information received in private briefings.

Occupy DC camps remain in McPherson Park and Freedom Square Tuesday after the U.S. Park Police’s deadline for eviction passed. Park officials said protesters can remain around the clock “so long as one side of each tent remains open at all times so they can see inside.”

An Indiana Senate Committee voted 6 to 1 to advance a right-to-work bill, a measure that allows workers to “opt out of paying union dues, even when a workplace is unionized.” The full Senate is expected to give final approval Wednesday, sending it to Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) for signature.

And finally: Stephen Colbert’s super PAC announced that it raised over $1 million and included donations from some celebrities, along with the the lieutenant governor of California, former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

For breaking news and updates throughout the day, follow ThinkProgress on Facebook and Twitter.

Economy

Three Years After Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Passed, Women Still Earn Far Less Than Men

By Travis Waldron posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jan 30, 2012 at 8:00 pm

Sunday marked the third anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first legislation signed into law by President Obama. The law, which expanded the statute of limitations on fair pay lawsuits, was a response to a Supreme Court ruling against Ledbetter in her fair pay case.

Though the law expanded the legal remedies available to women who have been victims of discriminatory pay, little has been done to address the pay gap that exists between male and female employees. Since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed into law, the pay gap has closed at less than half-a-cent per year. That trend is continuing, as the pay gap barely closed from 2009 to 2010.

Women made 77 percent of men’s earnings in 2009, the year the law passed. In 2010, that was virtually unchanged, as women’s wages rose to 77.4 percent of men’s. The gap is even larger for African Americans and Latinos: black women made 67.5 percent of all men’s earnings in 2009, while Latino women made 57.7 percent. In 2010, those figures ticked up to 67.7 percent and 58.7 percent, respectively.

Women make up half of the American workforce, and in two-thirds of American families, the mother is the primary breadwinner or a co-breadwinner. But they make less than their male counterparts in all 50 states, though the size of each state’s wage gap varies. While the gap continues to close in places like Washington, D.C., where women make 91.8 percent of men’s earnings, it is growing in others, like Wyoming, where women’s earnings dropped from 65.5 percent of men’s in 2009 to just 63.8 percent in 2010.

Because of the gender pay gap, women with the same education doing the same job as men earn far less over their working lifetimes. The wage gap costs $723,000 over a 40-year career for women with college degrees. In some industries, the gap can cost women close to a million dollars.

In November 2010, Senate Republicans killed efforts to close the pay gap when they unanimously voted to block the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have updated the Equal Pay Act, closed many of its loopholes, and strengthened incentives to prevent pay discrimination.

Politics

Is James O’Keefe Misrepresenting His Own Lawsuit Against A Newspaper?

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jan 30, 2012 at 7:15 pm

Conservative media provocateur James O’Keefe got himself in hot water earlier this month after a stunt in New Hampshire that sought to expose voter fraud, but potentially may have committed voter fraud in the process. Now, O’Keefe is firing back as his alleged accusers, suing the New Jersey Star-Ledger for defamation. A press release from O’Keefe’s Project Veritas :

The New Jersey Star-Ledger editorial board reported O’Keefe “committed a felony by fraudulently obtaining a ballot in the name of another person; [broke] New Hampshire law by recording another person.” Additionally the Star-Ledger Editorial board wrote January 22nd, O’Keefe is “still on probation for trying to tap the phone of Sen. Mary Landrieu. The Star-Ledger had previously printed a retraction for this claim on November 3rd, 2010. [...]

“It is my experience that demanding retractions from dishonorable people only leads to dishonorable retractions. Therefore, today I started a campaign to sue media organizations that state or repeat malicious lies about my work.”

Ironically, O’Keefe appears to misrepresent his lawsuit in the press release and misquotes the newspaper he’s accusing of defaming him.

While the press release is headlined, “James O’Keefe Sues the New Jersey Star-Ledger for Defamation after New Hampshire Voter Fraud Exposé,” and the release focuses on that stunt, the actual lawsuit makes no mention of the New Hampshire incident. The complaint instead involves the Star-Ledger’s offhand mention of an unrelated stunt in the editorial, when O’Keefe’s team sought to investigate Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) over a year ago.

O’Keefe accuses the Star-Ledger of reporting that he “committed a felony” in the New Hampshire stunt. But in the editorial on the paper’s website, that charge appears as part of a list under the subheading, “Here’s what else O’Keefe is accused of:” (A version accessed on Nexis reads: “Here’s what else O’Keefe is under investigation for:”).

Moreover, O’Keefe’s press release seems to misquotes the newspaper, if just slightly, swapping “committing” in the original text (both on Nexis and online) for “committed” in the press release. The word appears in quotation marks in the release and makes no indication that the language had been changed. While minor, this casual transposition calls into question the accusation’s accuracy.

The Star-Ledger, meanwhile, is hardly innocent here. The claim about phone tapping appears incorrect; O’Keefe plead guilty to a different, lesser crime.

Security

BREAKING: West Point Announces That Islamophobic General Has Withdrawn From Prayer Breakfast

By Faiz Shakir posted from ThinkProgress Security on Jan 30, 2012 at 6:35 pm

Just four days after ThinkProgress reported that the United States military academy at West Point was planning to host an Islamophobic general as its featured speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast, that general has now pulled out of the event. West Point just issued this news release:

LTG (Ret) William Boykin has decided to withdraw speaking at West Point’s National Prayer Breakfast on 8 February 2012. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the United States Military Academy will feature another speaker for the event.

VoteVets, the coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, is to be commended for raising this issue and putting pressure on West Point to do the right thing. VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz told ThinkProgress this evening, “This is why VoteVets exists — the calls from veterans, activists, and civil rights leaders around the country made this decision possible. I’m glad that the cadets will not be forced to hear the words of an anti-Muslim general whose rhetoric does not align with the values of our military and also endangers our troops in combat.”

Boykin has a deep record of anti-Muslim rhetoric. For instance, he said there should be “no mosques in America“; Muslims worship an “idol“; “Islam is a totalitarian way of life, it’s not just a religion”; “it should not be protected under the First Amendment”; Muslims operate “under an obligation to destroy our Constitution.”

Hopefully, Boykin will learn from this incident that his rhetoric is both wrong and hurtful.

NEWS FLASH

Gingrich Wants A Government That Respects ‘Our Religion,’ Not ‘Every Other Religion’ | As TP’s Igor Volsky pointed out today, Newt Gingrich has been accusing President Obama of perpetrating a “war on religion,” saying the president has made it more difficult for people of faith to practice their beliefs. But at a campaign stop in Florida this afternoon, Gingrich made that not all religions are created equally:

GINGRICH: Now, I think we need to have a government that respects our religions. I’m a little bit tired about respecting every religion on the planet. I’d like them to respect our religion.

Watch it:

Green

WSJ Publishes Op-Ed From 16 Climate Deniers, Refused Letter From 255 Top Scientists

By Brad Johnson posted from ThinkProgress Green on Jan 30, 2012 at 5:30 pm

This letter, signed by 255 members of the National Academies of Science, was rejected by the Wall Street Journal.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, sixteen prominent global warming deniers with scientific backgrounds — such as tobacco apologist Richard Lindzen of MIT and ExxonMobil executive Roger Cohen — concede that manmade carbon dioxide emissions have a warming effect on the planet, but argue that the effect is “small” and nothing to “panic” about. All the other scientists in the world who believe the science are part of a conspiracy to intimidate people like themselves, they write, just as Soviet biologists who believed in genes were “sent to the gulag and some were condemned to death.”

As climate scientist Peter Gleick reports at his Forbes.com blog, those other scientists include 255 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences who wrote a letter about the scientific threat of climate change for the Wall Street Journal — but were turned down:

The most amazing and telling evidence of the bias of the Wall Street Journal with respect to manmade climate change is the fact that 255 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences wrote a scientifically accurate essay on the realities of climate change and on the need for improved and serious public debate around the issue, offered it to the Wall Street Journal, and were turned down. The National Academy of Sciences is the nation’s pre-eminent independent scientific organizations. Its members are among the most respected in the world in their fields. Yet the Journal wouldn’t publish this letter. Instead they chose to publish an error-filled and misleading piece on climate because 16 so-called experts aligned with their bias signed it. This may be good politics for them, but it is bad science and it is bad for the nation.

The NAS letter was eventually published by Science magazine.

Even though the first decade of the 2000s was warmer than the 1990s, and 2005 and 2010 were the warmest years on record, the denier op-ed asserts “the most inconvenient fact is the lack of global warming for well over 10 years now.”

This op-ed was promoted on Fox News, Real Clear Politics, Alex Jones’ Infowars, and other right-wing political and conspiracy sites.

Politics

Allen West To Liberals, President Obama: ‘Get The Hell Out Of The United States Of America’

By Guest Blogger on Jan 30, 2012 at 4:42 pm

Just days after President Obama reiterated his call for an end to partisan gridlock in Washington, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) delivered an incendiary speech at the Palm Beach County GOP Party Lincoln Day Dinner in West Palm Beach calling on prominent Democrats to “get the hell out” of America:

This is a battlefield that we must stand upon and we need to let president Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and my dear friend, the chairman of the Democrat National Committee [Debbie Wasserman-Schultz], we need to let them know that Florida is not on the table. Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, and take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.

Watch it:

West went on to say further that he “will not allow President Obama to take the United States of America and destroy it.”

At a time when a rising number of Americans see a major conflict between the rich and the poor and feel that too much power lies in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations, nearly two-thirds of the country (66 percent) would be obliged to follow President Obama out of the door.

This 10-minute speech in West Palm Beach is only the latest controversy in a string of rhetorical hiccups for West. Most recently, he slammed critics who condemned the actions of a group of U.S. Marines who urinated on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters, referred curiously to undocumented immigration as an “invasion,” and marked the repeal of DADT as the harbinger of America’s military decline. Just a month ago, West chided President Obama for his use of “divisive rhetoric” when speaking about “equality and fairness” as he felt such words were contrary to “liberty and [the] pursuit of happiness.”

– Fatima Najiy

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Politics

Gingrich ‘Will Not Accept’ Obama Debate With Reporters As Moderators

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jan 30, 2012 at 4:00 pm

At a campaign stop in Florida today, Newt Gingrich said that if he wins the GOP nomination, he will refuse to debate President Obama if a reporter serves as moderator. Gingrich has prided himself on his debating prowess and his intellect, and virtually every presidential debate is moderated by members of the press, but Gingrich thinks all reporters are secretly Obama shills and he is apparently uncomfortable dealing with them:

GINGRICH: As your nominee in the fall, I will not accept debates in which reporters are the moderators, because I will not accept another Obama person in the debate.

Watch it:

Gingrich has been pushing for a scheme to hold seven Lincoln-Douglas style debates with no moderator, but this seems to be the first time he’s said he would refuse to participate in a traditional debate.

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Politics

Oregon Special Election Tomorrow: Will Voters Reject Global Warming Denier Rob Cornilles?

By Josh Israel on Jan 30, 2012 at 3:30 pm

Rob Cornillles

Candidate Rob Cornilles (R-OR)

Tomorrow (January 31) is the deadline for residents of Oregon’s first congressional district to vote in a special election for U.S. Representative — and the Republican nominee in that race holds some rather extreme views. The by-mail election is to replace former Rep. David Wu (D) who resigned last year.

In a November primary, Democrats nominated then-State Sen. Suzanne Bonamici. She also received the endorsement and ballot line for the Independent Party of Oregon.

The Republicans selected unsuccessful 2010 nominee Rob Cornilles, a strategic consultant for sports-industry executives. He supports partial privatization of Social Security, would cut Social Security and Medicare to avoid any defense cuts, and has called himself “the original Tea Party candidate.”

In 2010, ThinkProgress Green reported that Cornilles claims, “There is absolutely no science that can be proven… that man, through our activities, can advance climate change.”

Unlike special elections last year in New York’s 26th district, New York’s 9th district, and Nevada’s 2nd district, the big spending conservative Super PACs have generally skipped this race — perhaps a sign that they see Cornilles as too extreme to win the district.

Two minor candidates are also on the ballots, which were mailed to all voters in mid-January and must be returned to local county elections offices by 8 p.m. Pacific time.

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NEWS FLASH

Tennessee Restaurant Throws Out Anti-Gay Lawmaker | A restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee refused to serve state Sen. Stacey Campfield, the man who sponsored the state’s “don’t say gay” bill, compared homosexuality to bestiality, and most recently told Michelangelo Signorile that it’s virtually impossible to spread HIV/AIDS through heterosexual sex. “I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discriminated against,” the Bistro at the Bijou wrote on its Facebook wall on Sunday. The restaurant has received an overwhelmingly positive response. (HT: Michelangelo Signorile)

Update

In a brief interview, Campfield confirmed to BuzzFeed that the restaurant’s hostess called him homophobic and said that he “hates homosexuals,” refusing to serve him. He argued that it couldn’t be true because he rents to gay people through his business. (HT: Towleroad.)

Related Posts

LGBT

Romney Touts Support Of Pastor Who Sees A Correlation Between Marriage Equality And 9/11

By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress LGBT on Jan 30, 2012 at 2:20 pm

Dr. Roberto Miranda

The Romney campaign has released a letter from Christian conservatives touting the former Massachusetts governor’s “solid social conservative credentials,” “leadership on the marriage issue,” and opposition to abortion rights. Romney “helped prevent our nation from being plunged into even worse legal turmoil following the court decision that forced ‘gay marriage’ upon our Commonwealth,” the broad coalition of anti-abortion and anti-gay groups write, dismissing his past support for a woman’s right to choose and gay and lesbian equality:

Governor Romney immediately and strongly condemned the November 18, 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) decision that legalized “same-sex marriage” in our state. More importantly, he followed up on that denunciation with action – action that saved our nation from a constitutional crisis over the definition of marriage. He and his staff identified and enforced a little-known 1913 law that allowed them to order local clerks not to issue marriage licenses to out-of-state couples. Absent this action, homosexual couples would surely have flooded into Massachusetts from other states to get “married” and then demanded that their home states recognize the “marriages,” putting the nation only one court decision away from nationalizing “same-sex marriage.”

Twenty-one religious leaders endorsed the letter, including the Massachusetts Family Institute’s Kristian Mineau, whose organization received donations from Romney’s charitable foundation and promotes discredited ex-gay therapy.

Another signatory, Dr. Roberto Miranda of the COPAHNI Fellowship of Hispanic Pastors of New England, sees marriage equality as the work of the Devil and has drawn a “direct correlation between marriage equality and the September 11th terrorist attacks.” “Is it exaggerated to see prophetic significance in the fact that on September 11, 2001 Boston served as the point of departure for the deadly forces that spread so much destruction and havoc in this nation and all over the world,” he asked. “What took place at the material level is now being carried out at the moral and spiritual level, as the virus of homosexuality and gay marriage begins to spread dramatically all over this nation and perhaps the world.”

Romney echoed a similar message ahead of the South Carolina primary, releasing a commercial in which conservative supporters described him as a candidate who believes in “the sanctity of life, the sacredness of marriage, and the importance of the family.” (HT: Jeremy Hooper)

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NEWS FLASH

Michael Steele Slams RNC Chair For Comparing Obama To Italian Captain | RNC Chairman Reince Priebus quickly drew flak from Democrats and others yesterday for comparing President Obama to the captain of the doomed Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia. “It’s ok to make light of horrific ship crashes if the people who died weren’t Americans?” ABC News’ Jake Tapper asked on Twitter. Apparently the comment was a bridge too far even for Priebus’ predecessor, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who called the analogy “unfortunate” on MSNBC this morning. “I mean, people died in that situation,” Steele said. Watch it:

Economy

Sen. Whitehouse To Introduce ‘Buffett Rule’ Bill To Raise Taxes On Millionaires

By Travis Waldron posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jan 30, 2012 at 1:00 pm

President Obama renewed his call for raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to help reduce the deficit during his State of the Union speech, a proposal that became known in 2011 as the “Buffett Rule” after Obama mentioned that Warren Buffett paid a lower tax rate than his secretary last year.

Obama’s State of the Union speech offered the first concrete details about the oft-mentioned idea, as he called for a 30 percent minimum tax rate for millionaires. And according to the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) will introduce a bill this week that could make the Buffett Rule law:

Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will unveil a new proposal — first reported on this blog — to bring the tax rate of millionaires paying less than middle class taxpayers up to 30 percent. While we don’t know if the Dem leadership will act on this particular proposal, the “Buffett Rule” will get some sort of Senate vote. Republicans are all but certain to oppose it, perhaps unanimously.

Whitehouse told reporters today that he plans to introduce the bill Wednesday, after it is scored by the Joint Committee on Taxation. As Sargent noted, Senate Republicans are likely to rule out the proposal unanimously. Republicans have, indeed, gone a long way to protect the low tax rates of the wealthiest Americans. They insisted on a one-year extension of the budget-busting high-end Bush tax cuts in December 2010 and their intransigence on taxes repeatedly took the government to the brink of shutdown and default in 2011, even costing the U.S. its first credit downgrade.

Up until now, Congress has tried to reduce the deficit through spending cuts alone, many of them to programs that disproportionately affect the poor and middle class. The one tax hike the GOP has supported, meanwhile, would primarily affect working class Americans. Whitehouse’s legislation, however, gives Congress a chance to ask the rich, who have benefited from falling tax rates even as their incomes have skyrocketed, to share in the sacrifice.

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