Shikha Dalmia on Why Obama Should Champion the Gandhi Rule, Not the Buffett Rule

President Obama has been on the stump condemning Senate Republicans for the defeat of the so-called Buffett Rule, his plan to make high-earning Americans pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. The naysayers, Obama thunders, chose "once again to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest few Americans at the expense of the middle class." But as Shikha Dalmia argues, if the president is serious about making the rich pay their "fair share"—as opposed to scoring political points in an election year—he needs the Gandhi Rule, not the Buffett Rule. In other words, Obama ought to apply the Gandhi quote that he repeated ad nauseam during his first campaign—"Be the change you wish to see"—to his own tax returns.