Really Not Fair

I've talked about this before but now its come up again. Senate Democrats are proposing legislation titled, The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. Among other things this bill will extend unemployment benefits and COBRA extensions. (Full disclosure-I am getting both) They're trying to schedule for a vote next week before the recess. The good thing is that there is a way to pay for some of this which should keep the GOP at bay. By removing a special tax loophole available to money managers. This is a really, really a big loophole that allows some of the richest people on Wall Street to pay the lowest tax rate. These folks don't get a 'paycheck' per se but are paid based on profits with a process known as 'carried interest'. This method means that they are taxed as if this were capital gains and not a regular income. It means they pay 15% tax while the rest of us pay twice that or more. Big, big loophole.

The thing I am very irritated by is that Maria Cantwell, John Kerry and Mark Warner are backing the fat cats on this and don't want to see the loophole removed. Granted they are all very wealthy Dems and these guys are probably good buddies but it is endangering extending unemployment benefits and COBRA assistance and not the Democratic thing to do. I might note that unemployment benefits are taxed at a higher rate than these multi-millionaires are paying. I don't care if they make buckets of money but I think they should pay the same taxes as the rest of us. What's fair is fair.

H/T AmericaBlog