Poll finds 60 percent support ‘Buffett Rule’

 WASHINGTON – The White House’s proposed “Buffett Rule” looks like a political winner, at least for now.

 A new Gallup poll finds that six in 10 Americans support the idea of a law that would require households that earn $1 million or more a year to pay a minimum 30 percent tax rate, as President Barack Obama has called for. Thirty-seven percent are opposed.

Three out of four Democrats favor the plan, while Republicans are split 43 percent for and 54 percent against. Among independent voters, 63 percent back the idea.

 Last September, Obama called for tax reform that would, in part, ensure that the middle class did not have a higher tax burden than “millionaires and billionaires.” It was dubbed the “Buffett rule” because, as Obama put it at the time using the billionaire as an example, “Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett.”