Can I take my vote back from yesterday’s "do you approve of Congress" vote?
If the Democrats can get Bush to veto this piece of legislation (via Yahoo), they'll have my confidence once again:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill on Friday that would more than double taxes on the pay of managers of private equity funds, hedge funds and other investment partnerships.
Throwing down a challenge to some of the nation's savviest and richest financiers, the bill would set a higher tax rate for "carried interest," the 20-percent cut of profits beyond targeted returns typically kept by senior managers of private equity firms and other firms on major transactions.
So what does all this mean? Turns out these Private Equity Firms (a la Blackstone and the Carlye Group) don't report their income as income, but as capital gains. Income is taxed at 35%, capital gains is taxed at 15%
.
"Congress must ensure that our tax code is fair," said Michigan Democrat Sander Levin, one of the lawmakers who introduced the bill.
"We have to be sure that the lower capital gains tax rate is not being inappropriately substituted for the tax rate on wages and earnings," Levin said in a statement.
Joining Levin in introducing the bill were Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of New York, and Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts.
First off, I think separating capital gains from income is stupid. Income is income is income and should all be taxed the same. And if not, let's get ourselves a progressive capital gains tax.
But more disgusting then that is these Billionaires abusing the tax law to avoid paying their fair share.
As I said above: no way would Bush ever sign this since this is a tax on his "have mores" base. I doubt Reid could even get cloture on such a measure.
Still, just another reason why Democrats are a gazillion times better than Republicans.