Economic fairness begins with implementing the ‘Buffett Rule’

In the State of the Union address delivered Tuesday night, President Barack Obama stated he would seek to implement the "Buffett Rule" –– a tax rule that would enforce a minimum 30 percent income tax on all individuals making more than $1 million annually. In a strange, but coincidental event, the GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney finally, after much reluctance, released his tax returns to the public. One does not need to look far to see proof that the United States needs to rid itself of the current minimum tax law that gives breaks to millionaires. The fact that a man who makes $21.7 million in a year, like Romney, can pay the same tax rate (14.7 percent) as an individual earning $50,000 annually is proof enough that a change needs to occur.

Many conservatives have labeled this, "class warfare." It is far from such. This is about shrinking the disparity between the ultra-rich at the top of the pyramid and the destitute poor who make up the foundation of it. Since the 2008 Great Recession, the class disparity has grown at an exponential rate. The middle class is shrinking, and the other lower economic classes are suffering even more, while individuals like Romney make nearly five times as much as the average person and pay around the same amount of taxes. How can it be that a country like the U.S. can leave behind the vast majority of its people, some call this the 99 percent, while a minute percent (1 percent) get so far ahead? To abate this a tax such as the Buffett Rule would at least be a fair start to working toward economic fairness, and eventually economic equality.

"If you are the one making under $250,000 a year —like 98 percent of American families — then your taxes should not go up," President Obama said in his address on Tuesday. "You are the ones struggling with rising costs, stagnant wages. You are the ones who need relief." Take away tax breaks for the ultra-rich and make them pay their fair share of taxes. It is nonsensical for a middle-class factory worker to pay the same amount of taxes as a hedge fund manager. The country should not be one where presidential candidates and millionaires pay the same in taxes as their secretaries.