Proposed Buffet tax rule divides apple pie evenly

As I watched the State of the Union address on Jan. 24 with the FGCU College Democrats and other Democrats of Southwest Florida gathered for a viewing party, I had already made a mental list of what I expected to hear from President Obama in the most important speech of the year.

I knew that education and jobs would be in my top three list of issues I wanted addressed, not just for that night but for the whole year. A few hours before I drove to Fort Myers, I learned that Debbie Bosanek, Warren Buffett's secretary, was invited to the SOTU speech by the president, and I knew then the issue rounding out the top three would be our broken tax code.

The Buffett Rule, as it was originally titled, was first proposed by President Obama in the SOTU speech and was later introduced into legislation in the Senate as The Paying a Fair Share Act by Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island last week.

The bill states that citizens who make more than $1 million a year will pay a minimum tax rate of 30 percent.

"Mr. Buffett has called for a correction of this tax anomaly and I agree with him. We should celebrate the success of those earning millions a year but we really don't need to subsidize that," Whitehouse said.

Common sense was the term President Obama used in the SOTU speech to describe the idea for this bill and you can see why this bill is a great idea by comparing two important numbers in this situation: Buffett's tax rate is 17.4 percent while his secretary's tax rate is 35.8 percent.

"I just feel like an average citizen. I represent the average citizen who needs a voice. Everybody in our office is paying a higher tax rate than Warren." Bosanek said in a interview with Buffett to ABC News.

Like a decent boss, Buffett defended his secretary of 19 years in this interview, saying it is about time he and every wealthy person begin paying more in taxes.

"If this is a war, my side has the nuclear bomb. We have K Street, we have Wall Street; Debbie doesn't have anybody. I want a government that is responsive to the people who got the short straw in life."

To those of you who want to call me a socialist, I want to pose this question to you: How would you like to go back in time to the 1950s when tax on the top marginal rate was 91 percent, or to the 1970s when the rate was 70 percent?

We know people such as Buffett, Chris Matthews, Sen. Bernie Sanders (a proud socialist) and Michael Moore have been right the whole time when they said America has been excused from shared sacrifice that we once did as a country when we really cared about one another.

The apple pie has been divided unevenly and the rich have gotten too many tax breaks while the poor and the middle class like Bosanek, who have played by the rules their whole lives, have gotten little to no respect.

I am very proud that President Obama and the Senate Democrats are taking the advice of someone who didn't let wealth turn him into a greedy and heartless bastard like it has done to some people who become a member of the 1 percent.

Once this bill is argued over by both parties, gets passed by Congress, and the president signs it, the wealthy in this country will finally see what it is like to pay taxes like the 99 percent do, and that will be the start of a brand new America that I want to see in the 21st century.