The Center for Tax Justice, a liberal think tank, issued a report Wednesday projecting that implementation of President Obama’s proposal for a new alternative minimum tax, or "Buffett Rule," would raise only $50 billion a year in revenue. That amounts to just 5 percent of the annual deficits incurred by the federal government in recent years, which have not been less than $1 trillion since 2009.
The study also found that the Buffett rule would bring in even less revenue if the Bush tax rates are allowed to expire at the end of this year. If taxes on incomes, capital gains, and dividends reset to their pre-2001 levels on January 1, 2013, wrote the authors of the report, "The Buffett Rule would raise about $25 billion annually in years after 2012."
The study reinforces the idea that President Obama is less interested in raising revenue to reduce deficits and debt than having millionaires "pay our fair share of taxes."