Conrad Budget Has Millionaires' Tax

The Hill reports:

Millionaires would be hit with a 3 percent surtax under a draft Senate Democratic budget.

A Senate aide told The Hill on Wednesday that the draft 2012 budget outline presented at Tuesday's Democratic policy lunch by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) called for a 3 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year.

Conrad’s proposal would use strong>a 50-50 split< of spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit, which was a nod to progressives in the Senate Democratic caucus.

The shift to the political left is also sure to play a role as Democrats lay down a marker in discussions over raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling with Republicans, who have said the House GOP budget is their starting point.

Still, the surtax could have trouble winning support among the more centrist Senate Democrats. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a Budget Committee member, said Wednesday that no final decision had been made on whether to include that sort of idea in the 2012 proposal.

For their part, Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate have said that tax increases are off the table in the talks over deficit-reduction, as Washington officials have coalesced around a target of lopping at least $4 trillion off the deficit over a decade.