Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was dismissive Sunday of the Buffett Rule, calling it little more than a "shiny object" the president is trying to use to distract from his economic record.
"This is Obama's strategy. 'Look over here at this shiny object here. Don't look at the big picture, an economy on the brink that I didn't do a thing about and made things worse,'" Priebus told CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union."
The Senate will vote on the change to the tax code on Monday, after a strong push from President Barack Obama. The Buffett Rule would require millionaires to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.
Priebus said it would be "one single tiny alteration of the tax code" that would raise only enough to fund the government for 11 hours instead of making a significant dent in the deficit.
"We're talking about 11 hours of revenue," he said. "This is where we shut down Washington, D.C., to talk about 11 hours of revenue while millions of people are out of work."
Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod, speaking on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace," said the Buffett Rule would cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade.
Obama responded to criticism on his push for the rule during his weekly address on Saturday.
"I know they'll say that this is all about wanting to raise people’s taxes," Obama said. "They probably won't tell you that if you belong to a middle-class family, then I've cut your taxes each year that I've been in office, and I’ve cut taxes for small business owners 17 times."