From a release out of Rep. Steve Scalise’s office this morning comes a fun bit of gamesmanship…

Congressman Steve Scalise yesterday introduced the Buffett Rule, H.R. 3099, in an effort to eliminate the threat of mandated higher taxes on Americans. The bill adds an optional donation box to IRS filing forms allowing people to donate more than they already owe in taxes to pay down the national debt. The bill is named in honor of billionaire Warren Buffett who has long said he doesn’t pay enough in taxes.

“The President keeps insisting that he wants to raise taxes on hard-working families and small businesses, and has used Warren Buffett as the poster-child for his class warfare scheme because Buffett continues to say that he doesn’t pay enough in taxes,” Scalise said. “If Warren Buffett and others like him truly feel they’re not paying enough in taxes, they can use the ‘Buffett Rule’ to put their money where their mouth is and voluntarily send in more to pay down the national debt, rather than changing the entire tax code to inflict more job-killing tax hikes on hard-working Americans. The Buffett rule is a common sense alternative to the divisive class warfare calls for higher taxes being pushed by President Obama and it allows Warren Buffett and others like him to voluntarily donate more of their money to pay down our national debt if they choose to put their money where their mouth is.

“Even President Obama has admitted that higher taxes will hurt our struggling economy. The problem we’re having in America is not that we are taxed too little, it’s that Washington is spending too much, and you don’t solve that problem by sending Washington even more money to spend in the form of job-killing tax hikes.”