Sanders introduces millionaire surtax to slash deficit
Friday, March 11th, 2011 -- 8:32 am
Tags: afternoon, bill, budget, budget shortfall,Congress, deficit, deficit reduction act,democrats and republicans, millionaire, nbc wall street journal poll, percent, republican proposals, sen bernie sanders, street journal poll, surtaxWASHINGTON – As Democrats and Republicans battle over how much spending should be cut to bridge the budget shortfall, one senator is focusing on the other side of the equation: revenues.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Thursday afternoon introduced abill (pdf) that would establish a surtax on millionaires and strip tax deductions for oil companies -- a proposal he claims would cut the deficit by about $50 billion.
The Emergency Deficit Reduction Act would accomplish this by raising taxes by 5.4 percent on annual income over $1 million.
Congress has yet to pass a budget to fund the government for fiscal 2011, approving three continuing resolutions to avoid a shutdown. The latest expires March 18. The Senate rejected the Democratic and Republican proposals Wednesday.
