Pres. Obama renews populist pitch, urges Congress to pass the "Buffett Rule"

>>> in just minutes president obama will make a new populous pitch to level the tax playing field . he'll be flakd by millionaires and their secretaries at the white house . he'll call on congress to pass the buffett law, famously named after billionaire warren buffett . the president's plan would impose a minimum tax of 30% of those earning a million dollars a year. let's bring in vermont senator, bernie sanders . good morning. you know what the republicans are saying about the buffett rule, they say it's class warfare , what is your argument.

>> i think the republicans are right. class warfare is being waged in america . it's the corporate and billionaires who are waging warfare against the middle class . sadly the wrong side is winning. chris, a study just came out recently, it said between 2009 and 2010 , 93%, 93% of all new income went to the top 1%. today, you have the top 1% earning more income. you have the 400 wealthiest people in the america owning more wealth than the bottom half americans. people on top who are doing phenomenal well. their effective real tax rate is the lowest in decades. on the other hand, you have a declining middle class and massive unemployment. should the wealthiest people in this country in terms of deficit reduction, in terms of helping us fund education and infrastructure be asked to paid more in taxes, of course they should.

>> if they to go along with the buffett law, it's going to generate 10% in revenue. which is a drop in the bucket when you're dealing with this deficit.

>> they're right. we have to do a lot more. one of the things that we got to do in addition moving toward progressive taxes , we have to do away with these outrageous loopholes that agree. oil companies making billions of dollars in years in profit and paying nothing in taxes. huge sums of tax savings like bermuda in the cayman islands , we're losing hundreds of billions dollars in revenue. should we start closing some of these tax loopholes that corporations are enjoying? of course we should do.

>> former president george w. bush made a rare comment, he talked about the tax cuts that bare his name.

>> i which they weren't called the bush tax cuts . they're probably less likely to be raised. but if you raise taxes, you're taking money out of the pockets of consumer.

>> what about that argument?

>> you know, chris, we did hear that point from president bush for eight years. we did hear that and during his eight-year term, we lost 500,000 private sector jobs. president bush and mitt romney are exponents of a theory called trickle-down economy. if you give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, they're going to reinvest in america and we're going to live happily ever. we saw that movie during the bush years, it failed. when bush left office, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. we were on the verge of an international financial collapse. it just so happens that theory doesn't work for ordinary people . it works for millionaires and billionaires. it has to change. we got to start investing in programs that help the middle class and the working families . but not progressive taxation , but fighting to defend social security , medicare and medicaid. transforming our energy system. president bush and mitt romney 's economic theories work for the wealthiest people in this country. they don't work for the working americans.

>> bernie sanders , from the beautiful state of vermont. thank you so much.