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The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

Statement by the Press Secretary on Senate Action on the Buffett Rule

The President proposed the Buffett Rule to ensure a very basic principle of fairness: millionaires shouldn’t pay less in taxes as a share of their income than middle class families pay. The President believes our system must ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share, while protecting 98 percent of Americans from seeing their taxes go up at all.  And we can’t accept the Ryan Republican approach that hands out massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of investing in the things we need to grow our economy, create jobs and help the middle class.   In the next few weeks, Members of Congress will get a chance to vote on the Buffett Rule, and show the American people whether they are willing to make sure the middle class gets a fair shake.  We urge Members to vote for this common sense approach.