it's just simple fairness. >> senator sheldon whitehouse, let me say this. this class warfare charge is really bogus. it's not about the rich against the poor. the only class warfare is those with class and those with no class that don't think that the rich ought to be paying their share. senator sheldon whitehouse, thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks, reverend. >> ahead, new gop union bastion. the republican flavor of the month mitch daniels is trying to cripple unions in indiana. but the people are taking to the streets to protest. and chris christie speaks out again on his controversial comments about the civil rights movement. this one might surprise you. we'll be right back. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath ] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! premier of the packed bag. you know organization i

joining us now to discuss this proposed legislation, democratic senator sheldon whitehouse.nks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> $50 billion will have a huge impact on the overall deficit. >> we have certainly fought over numbers that are a lot smaller than that. and you are close to a half of trillion dollars if your number is $50 billion. so it's pretty real money actually. >> what about the argument from republicans that raising the capital gains rate may hurt home sales at a time when that industry is already reeling? >> i don't see any connection whatsoever. we have had a number of people look at this and see what the offsets would be. and there's really very little. it's basically people who aren't paying their taxes, who are pay accurate far lower than what everybody expects they would pay. these are people paying 18 14 in some cases 11%. so it's just a loophole. it needs to be closed and we intend to do it. >> mitt romney argues that the 15% on capital gains is misleading because he says corporations pay taxes on those as well. >> if you want to tax a dollar an

citizens united who are bought off and who are trying to do the right thing one of those a senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island led by senator whitehouse democrats in the senate are pushing for a vote on what president obama has your group referred to as the buffett rule it's a rule that will require anyone who pay makes more than a million bucks a year to pay a minimum of thirty percent in federal income taxes regardless of where their income comes from keep in mind the top tax rate now for rate right now for people like warren buffett's secretary is thirty five percent so millionaires and billionaires will actually still pay less than she does but with the buffett rule in place people like mitt romney and paris hilton will make their money sit on their butts around the pool waiting for the dividend checks to arrive will finally pay their fair share in taxes and not just the mac current maximum of fifteen percent senator white house is calling the legislation the ain't a fair share act so can such a proposal break a republican filibuster in the senate and actually get consideration in a bought

. >> sheldon whitehouse introduced a bill to do that which is codifying the buffet rule.nd david kay johnston has done a very thorough analysis of the top corporations in the country. the top multinational corporations in this country -- they cut 2.5 million jobs here and increased 2.9 million jobs overseas. the reason we're seeing a lot of this income disparity is because of hollowing out of the middle class, and what those top companies are spending in taxes in the united states. maybe you can describe a bit of what you learned for the top companies that you studied. >> well if you are not in the top 14,000 companies, jennifer that is companies you have never heard of you are paying pretty close to the corporate 35% tax rate. those companies or about 5 million of them they pay around 32%. so they are pretty close. but when you get to the top, you get a holy different story. typically they are paying around a 20% actual tax rate. some of them as we know are paying little to nothing. pepco has had a negative tax rate almost every year for the last decade and we now have a

democratic senator sheldon whitehouse introduced the buffet rule, anyone making more than a million dollars a year should pay at least 30% in income tax. it's not about punishing the rich as republicans like to say. it's about fairness. >> but, with all the advantages that do come with enormous income, paying a lower tax rate than regular working families should not be one of those advantages. >> let's turn to independent vermont senator sanders, one of the co-sponsors of the bill. senator, before we get to this, i do want to ask you, your reaction to mitt romney "i'm not concerned about poor people because we have a social safety net for them, if it needs fixing, i'll fix it" what is your response? >> a horrendous, ugly statement especially coming from somebody worth hundreds of millions of dollars. ed, the reality is that poverty today is at an all time high. we did a hearing on this in my sub committee, if you are in the lowest 20% of the american people, you will die six-and-a-half years younger than if you're in the top 20%. poverty in many ways is a death sentence. romney and his frie

take a listen to the bill's co-sponsor, rhode island senator sheldon whitehouse earlier today. >> we should celebrate the success of people who are earning a million dollars and more a year, but we really don't, particularly in this time of tight budgets and hard choices need to subsidize that. to call our tax system fair, i believe the highest income americans should pay a higher rate, not a lower one than middle income taxpayers. >> all right. let's talk. here now is former labor secretary robert reich. he is the author of "aftershock" and we republican kay bailey hutchison. senator hutchison, thank you. do we need a 30% millionaire's tax? >> larry, you're talking about the income that the 15% rate, which is there to promote investment and capital expenditures. now you're talking about putting another big blanket on our economy. i just think we need to stop talking about tax increases on the people who would create jobs and instead start cutting spending. we are now looking at the cbo, which came out with their estimate of this year's deficit, and it's another over a trillion dolla