good evening. i m erin burnett and outfront tonight, we have breaking news. rhode island senator sheldon whitehouse announces tonight he ll introduce a warren buffett rule bill in the senate. first touted by president obama in his state of the union last week, the bill would require those earns more than a million dollars to pay at least 30% in taxes. that s an effective rate. the marginal rate would be 44%. he comes outfront tonight. we appreciate you taking the time, sir. thank you very much. it s good to be with you. a lot of people say this bill isn t going to go anywhere. you re going to get fights from republicans. millionaire s taxes didn t pass in the senate last year despite the democrats there. is this really a move for a political headline or something you think will actually pass? i think there s a good chance that it can pass. if it has difficulty on its own, bear in mind at the end of this year, all of the bush tax cuts expire and that s going to motiv
rhode island senator sheldon whitehouse announces tonight he ll introduce a warren buffett rule bill in the senate. first touted by president obama in his state of the union last week, the bill would require those earns more than a million dollars to pay at least 30% in taxes. that s an effective rate. the marginal rate would be 44%. he comes outfront tonight. we appreciate you taking the time, sir. thank you very much. it s good to be with you. a lot of people say this bill isn t going to go anywhere. you re going to get fights from republicans. millionaire s taxes didn t pass in the senate last year despite the democrats there. is this really a move for a political headline or something you think will actually pass? i think there s a good chance that it can pass. if it has difficulty on its own, bear in mind at the end of this year, all of the bush tax cuts expire and that s going to motivate everybody in washington to rethink tax policy. it doesn t make any common
rhode island senator sheldon whitehouse announces tonight he ll introduce a warren buffett rule bill in the senate. first touted by president obama in his state of the union last week, the bill would require those earns more than a million dollars to pay at least 30% in taxes. that s an effective rate. the marginal rate would be 44%. he comes outfront tonight. we appreciate you taking the time, sir. thank you very much. it s good to be with you. a lot of people say this bill isn t going to go anywhere. you re going to get fights from republicans. millionaire s taxes didn t pass in the senate last year despite the democrats there. is this really a move for a political headline or something you think will actually pass? i think there s a good chance that it can pass. if it has difficulty on its own, bear in mind at the end of this year, all of the bush tax cuts expire and that s going to motivate everybody in washington to rethink tax policy. it doesn t make any common
scientist jeffrey winters calls the defense industry, beats it back. according to david cay johnston, top 400 income earners in 2007 paid on average an effective tax rate of 16%, while a middle income earner can expect to pay 22% of their income in federal taxes. the white house has placed this issue at the center of their agenda, calling for tax changes that would restore progressivety to make sure warren buffett doesn t pay a lower effective rate than his secretary. the original name was the buffet rule. people around the obama campaign have started to call it the romney rule. romney s plan would make this worse. his tax plan would cut his own tax in half. a tax code is a moral document. it is one of the primary ways a democratic nation asserts its values. our tax code currently says we value wealth over work.
so, we had newt gingrich and mitt romney. both on the offensive over the last 24 hours. they know that six days is a short time and that s when the caucuses are. what have we been hearing from both of the candidates, mark? well, hala, you re absolutely right. so much on the line, so much at stake here. six days until january 3rd when iowa republicans will caucus and will really kick off what has been already a very long presidential season. well, newt gingrich had pledged not to go negative in this campaign. he had said that he would only go positive and talk about his plan to try to turn the american economy around. well, the gloves have come off and, in fact, he is going negative. yesterday on the situation room with wolf blitzer, he went right after mitt romney. in fact, let s listen to what newt gingrich had to say. all i say mitt is, if you want to run a negative campaign and you want to attack people, at least be man enough to own it. that s your staff and that s