Warren Buffett, the famous investor who proposed the minimum tax on the wealthy that led to President Obama’s proposed “Buffett Rule,” renewed his call for such a tax in a Monday editorial in the New York Times.

Buffett supports the expiration of the high-income Bush tax cuts, though he would raise the threshold from $500,000 to $250,000. But more importantly, he wrote in the editorial, a minimum tax would mitigate many of the preferences the wealthy glean from today’s tax code, raising a significant amount of revenue to reduce the nation’s deficit and debt without hurting the incentive to invest:

Additionally, we need Congress, right now, to enact a minimum tax on high incomes. I would suggest 30 percent of taxable income between $1 million and $10 million, and 35 percent on amounts above that. A plain and simple rule like that will block the efforts of lobbyists, lawyers and contribution-hungry legislators to keep the ultrarich paying rates well below those incurred by people with income just a tiny fraction of ours. Only a minimum tax on very high incomes will prevent the stated tax rate from being eviscerated by these warriors for the wealthy.

Buffett’s minimum tax would reverse the trend of falling tax rates for the ultra-wealthy. The average effective tax rate for taxpayers with incomes over $10 million fell to 20.7 percent in 2010, according to Internal Revenue Service data released last week, largely due to the fact that income from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate, make up nearly half of their incomes. The capital gains rate has been steadily eroded over the last 30 years, driving up income inequality in the process. In 2010, 93 percent of income gains went to the top 1 percent.

Republicans blocked Democratic attempts to enact a Buffett Rule earlier this year, arguing that it would raise a small amount of revenue while hammering small businesses. Citizens for Tax Justice, however, found that the rule would have raised about $50 billion a year while affecting only the richest 0.08 percent of taxpayers. And conservatives haven’t always opposed such taxes: it was Ronald Reagan who equalized capital gains rates with wage income rates and famously made the case that millionaires shouldn’t pay lower tax rates than middle-class earners.

A Republican congressional candidate in Iowa told a Tea Party audience yesterday that President Obama does not love his country because he supports raising taxes on millionaires.

Dan Dolan, one of three GOPers running to take on Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA) in Iowa’s second congressional district, made the comments on Thursday at a Tea Party meeting in Lamoni. After distorting how much revenue the proposed Buffett Rule, which raises taxes on millionaires, would bring in, Dolan used the president’s support for the measure as evidence that he is unpatriotic. “I have a hard time thinking that he loves this country if he’s willing to turn them against themselves for his own advancement,” Dolan declared.

DOLAN: The president who is, to me it’s disturbing where he’s willing to turn the country against itself to advance his agenda. He keeps talking about the Buffett Rule. The Buffett Rule would generate just over $1.1 billion in the first year. That’s 6 hours of federal borrowing. He knows it’s not going to solve anything, but he says it polls well and we’re going to just throw gasoline on the fire. He’s willing to turn the country against itself even though it won’t make a difference. So that’s bad leadership. I have a hard time thinking that he loves this country if he’s willing to turn them against themselves for his own advancement.

Watch it:

Dolan is correct about one thing: the Buffett Rule polls well. Extraordinarily well. And not just among the poor or Democrats. Rather, a new CNN poll this week found that 72 percent of Americans — including 53 percent of Republicans — support the Buffett Rule.

We called Dolan’s campaign to inquire whether he also believes that the three out of every four Americans, and a majority of those in his own party, don’t love their country. We will post their response if one is provided.

Senate Republicans last night successfully blocked the Buffett Rule, a proposed tax on millionaires that the GOP says would unfairly hit America’s small businesses and job creators. “It represents a huge tax increase on job creators,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said on MSNBC last week. “About 80 percent of our businesses file their taxes as individuals, so they would get hit by this Buffett Rule. Everybody thinks we’re just going to tax the hedge fund manager and the movie star, what you’re getting is that successful small business.”

But claims like Ryan’s are wrong, according to data from the U.S. Treasury. In fact, the Buffett Rule would hit just 1 percent of America’s small businesses, CNN Money reports:

But federal data show that only 1% of small business owners have enough income to qualify for the Buffett Rule, according to the Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis, which reviewed filings in 2007. The report, which was issued last year, examined 20 million tax returns — and only 273,000 would meet the Buffett Rule threshold.

Economists and tax experts don’t expect the landscape has changed drastically since that study was done. Most small firms are sole proprietorships, one-person operations like Rebel Luxe in Los Angeles.

The Buffett Rule would only hit households with incomes above $1 million that do not already pay a certain tax rate, a situation that is unlikely to apply to small businesses, because the vast majority of small business owners don’t earn $1 million a year and those that do are already taxed at normal income tax rates.

Rather, the rule, which would hit an estimated 217,000 households in 2015, would have a greater effect on individuals whose income is subject to lower capital gains and carried interest taxes, or those who use various loopholes to dramatically lower their tax rate. As the Treasury report shows, small businesses aren’t likely to be in that group, no matter what Republicans (and some Democrats) say.

Whitney Tilson, a millionaire hedge fund manager, wants President Obama to raise his taxes. Despite the fact that the Buffett Rule, the proposed minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans, would have made his federal tax bill 40 percent higher, Tilson was one of four millionaires standing with Obama yesterday at an appearance touting the rule.

Tilson also penned an editorial in the Washington Post calling for the Buffett Rule’s passage, saying, “It’s okay to raise my taxes” because “simple math and basic fairness” demand it:

It’s not class warfare to say that people like me — who aren’t suffering at all in these tough economic times, who are in many cases doing the best we’ve ever done and who can easily afford to pay more in taxes with no impact on our lifestyle — should be the first to step up and make a small sacrifice. [...]

Think of it this way: Every billion dollars not raised from millionaires is equal to a million average U.S. families each paying an extra $1,000 in taxes. That would be real hardship for a lot of families that, unlike mine, are struggling to make ends meet.

Tilson is a member of Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, a group that has called for higher taxes on the rich and protested Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist’s radical anti-tax pledge. Tilson renewed his attack on Norquist in the Post editorial, calling for a balanced plan to address the nation’s debt that includes both revenue and spending cuts. “Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge is pie-in-the-sky fantasy and dangerous demagoguery,” he wrote.

His argument that families like his “aren’t suffering at all in these tough economic times” is indeed correct. While the middle- and lower-classes have struggled to keep jobs and make ends meet, the wealthiest Americans have not. The top 1 percent of American earners captured 93 percent of income gains in 2010, and even as their incomes skyrocket, their tax rates have reached historic lows.

Last fall, when President Obama debuted the Buffett Rule — the simple idea that millionaires and billionaires should pay at least the same tax rate as middle class workers — we climbed into the wayback machine and found a video of President Ronald Reagan decrying “crazy” tax loopholes (originally stated on June 6, 1985) that allowed a millionaire to pay a lower tax rate than a bus driver.

With the Senate set to vote one week from today on a Buffett Rule bill that would make sure millionaires and billionaires pay a minimum tax rate of 30 percent, we now present another video of former President Reagan supporting the principle behind the Buffett Rule (originally stated on June 28, 1985).  In today’s video, President Reagan describes a letter he received from an executive who wanted to come to Washington and tell Congress why it’s “wrong” that he was able to “take advantage of the present tax code” to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary. Watch it:

Sounds pretty familiar.

We need to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.  We can start by passing the Buffett Rule to make sure millionaires and billionaires can no longer take advantage of unfair tax loopholes to pay a lower tax rate than millions of middle class workers.

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s call to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans has led to a predictable response from Republicans, who think Buffet should just “write a check” if he wants to pay more in taxes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has repeatedly urged Buffett to do so, and last week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) went farther, calling on Buffett to “write a check and shut up.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who introduced legislation containing a version of the Buffett Rule, slammed Republicans like Christie and McConnell today, saying that their “write a check” defense the tax code makes taxes “optional” for the wealthy, allowing them to “decide whether or not” they have to pay taxes:

WALDRON: Chris Christie, Mitch McConnell, a couple of the others have criticized Warren Buffett over the last couple weeks and said, you know, if he’s so disappointed he should just write a check.

WHITEHOUSE: You gotta love this idea that if you’re rich enough, the tax code becomes optional for you and you decide whether or not you’re going to write a check. You’re in a special category of people who doesn’t actually have to pay taxes, they just kind of get to if they feel like it. Let’s just say I haven’t heard them say that about working families.

Watch it:

Republicans like McConnell and Christie have done their part to make taxes on the wealthy as optional as possible. Despite the fact that the wealthiest Americans have seen their tax rates plummet even as their income rises, McConnell and his Republican colleagues have fought attempts to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy or to close loopholes that primarily benefit the rich. Christie, for his part, recently released a tax plan that would give 40 percent of its benefits to New Jersey’s richest one percent.

Buffett, meanwhile, has offered to write a check — as soon as Republicans do too. In January, he told Time Magazine he’d match any voluntary contribution made by Republicans. “I’ll even go three-to-one for McConnell,” Buffett said. So far, he has had to match only one Republican.

2012 GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal today to lay out his economic plan, reiterating his desire to cut the corporate tax rate in order to “restore America’s competitiveness.” During an interview on CNBC, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, in response to Santorum’s piece, noted that is is actually “a myth” that America’s corporate taxes are high. “Corporate taxes are not strangling American competitiveness,” Buffett explained, even bringing a chart to prove his point:

The interesting thing about the corporate rate is that corporate profits, as a percentage of GDP last year were the highest or just about the highest in the last 50 years. They were ten and a fraction percent of GDP. That’s higher than we’ve seen in 50 years. The corporate taxes as a percentage of GDP were 1.2 percent, $180 billion. That’s just about the lowest we’ve seen. So our corporate tax rate last year, effectively, in terms of taxes paid for the United States, was around 12 percent, which is well below those existing in most of the industrialized countries around the world. So it is a myth that American corporations are paying 35 percent or anything like it…Corporate taxes are not strangling American competitiveness.

Watch it:

Buffett is absolutely right to note that while corporate profits are at a record high, corporate taxes are at a nearly half-century low. When looking at the rate that corporations actually pay (as opposed to the statutory rate that only exists on paper), the U.S. has the second-lowest corporate tax rate in the developed world, and raises far less than other nations in corporate tax revenue.

During the interview, Buffett also responded to Gov. Chris Christie’s pronouncement that Buffett should just “write a check and shut up,” instead of calling for higher taxes on the rich. “It’s sort of a touching response to a $1.2 trillion deficit isn’t it? That somehow the American people will just all send in checks and that’ll take care of it,” Buffett said.

President Obama’s tax plan has, in part, focused on making the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes through a provision known as the Buffett Rule, which is named after famous investor Warren Buffett and would place a minimum tax on the income of millionaires. The plan, included in Obama’s budget last week, has led to predictable claims of class warfare from Republicans, many of whom are crafting ways to give the wealthy even larger tax breaks.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is one of the Republicans incensed by Obama’s plan. When CNN’s Piers Morgan asked last night what he thought about Buffett, Christie responded by saying he “wasn’t going to get into this class warfare business,” then told Buffett to “write a check and shut up”:

MORGAN: You know where I’m going at with that. Warren Buffett keeps screaming to be taxed more.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, well he should just write a check and shut up. Really. And just contribute. The fact of the matter is that I’m tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give the government more money, he’s got the ability to write a check. Go ahead and write it.

Watch it:

Buffett, perhaps unbeknownst to Christie, has offered to write a check to the government — as soon as any of the Republicans who have called on him to do so write one first. In January, Buffett told Time Magazine he’d match dollar-for-dollar any voluntary contribution made by Republicans. “And I’ll even go three-for-one for McConnell,” he added, referring to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Thus far, Buffett has had to match just one Republican — Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA). The rest of the GOP has chosen to ignore inequities in the tax code and rising income inequality, choosing instead to balance the budget solely through spending cuts to vital programs that help the Americans most in need of help.

Just yesterday, Christie himself unveiled a tax plan that would give 40 percent of its benefits to New Jersey’s richest one percent.