经济学人345:奥巴马的非正式时间

 　　THE difference between Barack Obama, leader and Barack Obama, campaigner is in the sleeves. When Mr Obama speaks as the president—sober, calm, head of a nation—he tends to encase them in a suit jacket. When he speaks as a candidate—fiery, enthusiastic, figurehead of a party—he loses the jacket and rolls up his shirtsleeves. One might expect him to deliver a speech on economic policy besuited. But for his barnburner on April 10th, during which he urged Congress to pass the Buffett rule, it was bare forearms start to finish.

　　总统奥巴马与竞选人奥巴马这两个头衔的区别就在于衬衫袖的不同。当奥巴马作为国家元首时，他身着单件西装，集沉着冷静于一身。而当他作为党派领袖以候选人的身份讲话时，他激情四射——此时他就褪去西装并挽起衬衫袖子。别人还以为他会西装笔挺地进行经济政策的演说，然而他在4月10日发表的激动人心的演说中敦促国会通过“巴菲特规则”时，自始至终都是挽着袖子，裸露着前臂。

　　The Buffett rule is named after Warren Buffett, who believes it is unfair that his secretary, who makes far less than he does, pays tax at a higher marginal rate. One version, the Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012, is scheduled by Senate Democrats¹ for a procedural vote on April 16th—as it happens, a day before federal income-tax returns must be filed. The rule aims to ensure that people earning more than $1m a year pay tax at an effective rate of 30%.

　　巴菲特规则是以涡沃伦·巴菲特命名的。作为亿万富翁的巴菲特,认为自己缴税的税率还不如手下的秘书多,尽管秘书比他挣得少多了（巴菲特缴税的税率约为15%,而其秘书缴纳的税率则为30%）。 一种说法称，2012年的公平分配收入法案是参议院民主党为了4月16日的程序性投票表决所安排的，而表决次日正是联邦所得税申报表的归档日期。这项规则旨在保证年收入超过1百万美元的富人缴纳30%的所得税。

　　Many do not. A report issued by the White House a day ahead of Mr Obama’s speech found that in 2009, 22,000 households earning more than $1m paid less than 15% of their income in taxes, and 1,470 households paidno federal income tax at all. Since around 1980, average tax rates of the top 1% of American earners have fallen as their incomes have risen. Small wonder that the president proposed the Buffett rule, as Jason Furman, deputy director of the National Economic Council put it, “as a basic principle of tax fairness”.

　　许多富人都没做到这点。在奥巴马总统发表演讲的前一天，一项由白宫发布的报告显示2009年2.2万个家庭收入超过1百万而仅缴纳不到15%的所得税，而1470个家庭干脆没有缴纳联邦所得税。自大约1980年以来，美国1%的富人阶层的收入增多了，但平均税率却降低了。只有少数人怀疑总统力挺巴菲特规则的动机，就像国际经济委员会的会长杰森·费曼说的：这是保持公平税收的基本准则。

　　Alan Viard, an economist² at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, describes the bill far less sexily: “It boils down to a partial rollback of the preferential rate for long-term capital gains.” Millionaires will retain their deductions³ for charitable donations, and those who already pay more than 30%—earning their millions in a payroll⁴ job, say, rather than through tax-advantaged investment—will generally be unaffected.

　　美国企业研究会的一名经济学家艾兰·维亚德是一个保守的智囊团，该法案在他眼中可远没有这么大的魅力：“它归结起来就是长期资本收益优惠税率的部分回落。”百万富翁都会继续进行慈善捐款活动，以少缴些税款，而那些年收入过百万且已缴纳超过30%所得税的人表示：通过优惠税率的投资，他们基本上就不会受到什么影响。

　　Paul Ryan, a Republican congressman⁵ from Wisconsin who is emerging as Mr Obama’s foil on economic matters, complained that “people think the Buffett rule is sort of budget pixie-dust” that is “going to fix our fiscal⁶ problems”, when in fact it is forecast to raise around $47 billion in ten years, according to congressional estimates: a drop in the proverbial bucket compared with both current deficit⁷ levels and projected spending levels over that period. Republicans are also quick to point out that the question of fairness cuts both ways. The top 1% of earners already pay 40% of federal income taxes, while nearly half of all Americans pay no federal income taxes at all. Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, dinged the bill for “being designed for no other reason than politics.”

　　来自威斯康星洲的共和党议员保罗·瑞恩在奥巴马面临经济事务上的挫败时开始显露头角。他抱怨道：人们认为巴菲特规则是解决我们财政问题的某种有魔力的“预算仙尘”。实际上，根据国会估计，十年内预计筹集到的470亿美元税款，与当前的赤字水平和预计的支出水平相比都是微不足道的。1%的富人阶层已经缴纳40%的联邦所得税了，而近一半的美国国民却根本不交联邦税。参议院财政委员会的头等共和党成员奥林·哈奇反复强调此法案“不过是政治手段”。

　　But politics is now the point. With Rick Santorum’s exit from the Republican race, the general-election season has arrived. Scott Hodge, who heads the right-leaning Tax Foundation, calls the Buffett rule “a bludgeon to hit Mitt⁸ Romney with”. Indeed it is. When Mr Obama talks about millionaires using accountants, lawyers and tax-advantaged investments to lower their tax rates, he is talking about Mr Romney—whose net worth is around $200m, and who in the past two years made $42.6m, mostly from capital gains, and paid around 15% of his income in taxes.

　　但目前政治就是关键。里克·桑多伦姆退出了共和党竞选后，大选赛季就来临了。右倾税务基金会首席官员斯科特·霍奇称巴菲特规则是“用来打击米特·罗姆尼的当头一棒”。它也的确如此。当奥巴马谈及百万富翁雇佣专业会计师、律师并利用优惠税率的投资使自己缴最低的税款时，他其实时在暗指罗姆尼——他的资本净值大约是2亿美元，在过去两年中他赚取的4.26千万美元大部分来自资本收益，而他只缴纳了约15%的所得税。

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 deductions   

扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演

参考例句：

• Many of the older officers trusted agents sightings more than cryptanalysts'deductions. 许多年纪比较大的军官往往相信特务的发现，而不怎么相信密码分析员的推断。
• You know how you rush at things,jump to conclusions without proper deductions. 你知道你处理问题是多么仓促，毫无合适的演绎就仓促下结论。

4 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

5 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

6 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

7 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

8 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。