have a cooperative relationship are at one part of our government and state department. we did the state department of this building. the secretary has not spoken about u.s. military capabilities. you ll hear me very often from this room he asked me about u.s. military assets or plans. i refer you to dod. because the suggestion that was made is that basically, secretary shouldn t be an involved portion b listen to to as it regards to policy. so someone that you agree with? everyone clearly heard what his forcible comments have been and continue to be on the issue of d prk and other countries as well. i would think so, yes. he is the fourth in line to the presidency. he carries a big stick. i don t work with sebastian. i have known him from a previous life in a previous career.
raising his own tax rate pointing out he pays a lower rate than his own secretary. this became known as the buffett rule and had politicians throwing his name around whenever possible. warren buffett s secretary shouldn t pay a higher tax rate than warren buffett. buffett. buffett. my friend, warren fuf bet. warren buffett. warren buffett. buffett himself has contributed $222,000 directly to congressional and presidential campaigns since 1997 and an additional $76,000 in joint fund-raising contributions from 2011-2012. most of that, more than $65,000 went to the obama victory fund in 2012. notably he supported hillary clinton s 2008 presidential bid and he also donated to her new york senate campaign in 2000. but it wasn t until last month he made his large contribution ever, a $100,000 check.
millionaire warren buffett argues his secretary shouldn t be paying a higher rate than he does. republicans say no taxes should be raise and they are countering with a plan to cut taxes for businesses. 72% of americans support taxing the wealthiest americans and 27% oppose. chuck schumer called mitt romney the poster boy for the bill saying it could be called the buffett rule or the romney rule. he is not going to want to have s inequity remain when he is an example of it. he weighed in on a tea party event in philadelphia. the american people are struggling and we have a president that doesn t seem to understand that he has been part of the problem and not part of the solution. i listen and he s got these ideas. the big idea now is this buffett rule. someone calculated by the way that the taxes he would raise
in reality, the guts of the speech were written four months ago when he first used billionaire business execkive to to push for higher taxes on the rich. warren buffett s secretary shouldn t pay a higher tax rate than warren buffett. reporter: aides say he ll add detail on how to fix it from policy stand point and he may also exploit it from political stand point by literally having warren buffett s long-time secretary sit in the house chamber with the first lady and other special guests including ten people from battleground states like virginia and north carolina. when the middle class workers are paying more in taxes than people making $50 million a year we have to change that. reporter: the president may revive previous plans to institute a millionaire surtax of up to 5.6% and raise capital gains for upper income taxpayers, moves to infuriate republicans making it harder
so the could reflect that, which of course is an issue that president obama has been talking about all the time. remember him saying that, you know, warren buffett s secretary shouldn t pay a higher tax rate than warren buffett does. martha: right. if romney s taxes come from capital gains, that is tailor-made issue for the president. martha: one that will not go away for mitt romney. we ll see how he handles it moving forward. byron, thank you from south caroline. thank you. bill: complete coverage of the first in the south primary this saturday, january 21. we ll have all the breaking developments out of the palmetto state. live coverage, 6:00. we ll roll through the night and see how close it is, won t we? martha: that s right. bill: here we go again. a new high stakeses showdown in washington. the debt debate returns. and ballooning federal debt this time. more than a trillion dollars. stuart varney, fox business network. his calculator doesn t go that high. good morning.