Posted on 08/15/2011 9:51:00 AM PDT by Titus-Maximus
In a The New York Times op-ed published Monday, Warren Buffett wrote that "[m]y friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress," and called for tax increases for Americans who make more than $1 million. Most of those people, he claimed, "wouldn’t mind" being told to pay more taxes.
...for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.
Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world's richest men, made his argument by pointing to his own federal tax bill last year: 17.4 percent on a taxable income of $6,938,744. He said his was the lowest tax rate of anyone in his 20 person office.
"If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine," Buffett wrote. "But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot."
It hasn't always been this way, Buffett wrote:
Since 1992, the I.R.S. has compiled data from the returns of the 400 Americans reporting the largest income. In 1992, the top 400 had aggregate taxable income of $16.9 billion and paid federal taxes of 29.2 percent on that sum. In 2008, the aggregate income of the highest 400 had soared to $90.9 billion — a staggering $227.4
(Excerpt) Read more at globalpost.com ...
1) Can we just take all of Buffet's money and put it in the treasury, and let him start from scratch again to prove he is that good. This guy's self-righteous lecturing is really annoying.
2) Hey Warren, taxation is not an end in itself! We have been brainwashed by the Dems and their lackey media into believing every citizen owes a huge chunk of their earned wealth to the government and it simply isn't true. The feds are taking a large swath of the largest economy in the world and still cannot get it done. The problem is not on the revenue side - because raising taxes will only mean more spending - it just will and stop the lying. There needs to be discipline and Buffet, you of all people, should know this, in spades, because I heard you preach it. If we think we can create some kind of egalitarian utopia through the tax code, we simply are mistaken. We will pay those who don't work and take from those who do. It will continue and continue until we have fully recreated the Greece situation here in America. Producers stop producing and consumers take until the cupboard is bare, then, when they are out of money they will throw Molotov cocktails at police officers.
Warren Buffett knows that most of the companies he owns pay taxes already and the US should stop double taxation. We want people to invest in companies, and if that makes them rich - so much the better. More investment is more jobs, make America a haven for capital from around the world, bring in the billionaires because they bring in the jobs!
Hey Warren, honestly, invest your loose billions in American high tech companies, build something using American brilliance rather than turning it over to the government, whose bureaucrats will use it to keep themselves in power. When some of the tech investments hit, keep re-investing, build large businesses from small and create millions of good jobs. Nothing creative comes out of the parasitic government, you are better off financing the technical genius in our own nation than giving away billions in tax dollars to a self- perpetuating consuming machine.
Just an idea.
This economist essentially says that income confiscation for all making above $500k per year would pay for part of the annual deficit. Sorry Buffet you old fool! You are either stupid or wrong,
You don’t need a law to give more to the government Warren.
Hey Warren, there’s a cool place on the IRS website that you can go to and write a check for any amount you feel you’re being undercharged and the IRS will gladly accept it. Please report back when you’ve done so.....
...yeah, I didn’t think so. So shut the H up.
Warren’s pontification is getting really old and tiring ! What he needs to do like the other exective types like Soros, Gates and himself is: STFU ! When people lke them are saying is the middle class needs to get screwed more and we have ours, we will make sure you cannot succeed in getting yours !
I think it makes more sense to tax foundations into oblivion.
A pretty brazen statement from a guy who built a fortune by avoiding taxes.
Buffett is a sanctimonious hypocrite. He made his money in the low tax 80s and 90s. He doesn't need any more income. I agree with a prior post. If he really wanted to put his money where his mouth is, he'd advocate retroactively taxing all his income for the past 30 years at a 33% rate and taking that out of his wealth, not just his income. Let's see how the old Limousine Lib hypocrite likes that.
The “super-rich” , or those over 1 million per year income, can move their assets around the world. They can also hold their income down and live off of capital gains just like the socialist and crony capitalist Buffet. So, the IRS will not get much revenue here.
The idea is to conflate the “super-rich” with those who make over 200k, and then further down into the middle class.
They don’t need to raise taxes. Just close ALL of the special interest loopholes.
ditto.
Once again he pretends he’s willing to sacrifice when in reality a higher INCOME tax will have no significant effect on him. His billions are in ASSETS. Nice con job, Warren.
No one puts a gun to anyone’s head and forces them to put their wealth in tax shelters.
If Warren Buffet, or Michael Moore, or Matt Damon or Babs Streisand or Tom Hanks or Bill Gates or JOH KERRY or NANCY PELOSI thinks the federal govt is a better steward of their wealth than they are, then lead the way. Fire the accountants and lawyers, take no deductions and give Caesar what they obviously think is Caesar's. Of all the tax-me-more whiners I have yet to see or hear about ONE who puts his money where his mouth is.
Warren Buffet want/desires taxes raised on the super wealthy knowing damn well that it will eliminate steps on the economic ladder of success and severely limit competition in commerce for future entrepreneurs.
Milton Friedman warned us about people like Buffet.
LLS
Going after the rich is like trying to pick up mercury with your fingers - can’t be done. They have many options to hide their money. Their bracket is, I guess, under 30 percent. Even if it was bumped up to twice that, and they agreed to pay it, the amount collected wouldn’t sustain Ozero’s 2012 budget for more than a week, if that - so what’s the point? Better to shut down branches of government like the EPA and education to start, then add more next year.
In order to raise tax’s on Millionaires, te Congress has to raise tax’s on themselves and I do not believe they are that stupid.
If tax’s are raised there will be a loophole there you could drive a truck through.
I don’t see Buffett giving up any of the tax loopholes that he applies for and gets every year.
How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?
There are two ways for you to make a contribution to reduce the debt:
You can make a contribution online either by credit card, checking or savings account at Pay.gov
You can write a check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and in the memo section, notate that it’s a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public. Mail your check to:
Attn Dept G
Bureau of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/resources/faq/faq_publicdebt.htm#DebtFinance
have at it, old man.
Did he escape from the nursing home again? Give him some tapioca and put him down for his nap.
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