The Buffett Rule Is Dead. Long Live the Buffett Rule.

You can't keep a good policy gimmick down. The so-called Buffett rule, a special tax designed to hit very high earners, like, I don't know, coughmittromneycough, failed to pass a vote in the Senate yesterday. But that didn't phase President Obama, who has been stumping for the policy in speeches across the country, and will apparently continue to do so.

"President Obama says he will continue to push for the plan that would require millionaires to pay at least the same tax rate as middle class Americans, and blame Republicans for defeating it in the Senate," reports USA Today. It's almost as if President Obama never really cared whether or not the plan passed, and was more interested in using it as an election-year cudgel against his political opponents.