Posted on 01/12/2012 4:35:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Warren Buffett is ready to call Republicans’ tax bluff. Last fall, Senator Mitch McConnell said that if Buffett were feeling “guilty” about paying too little in taxes, he should “send in a check.” The jab was in response to Buffett’s August 2011 New York Times op-ed, which made hay of the fact that our tax system is so unbalanced, Buffett (worth about $45 billion) pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Senator John Thune promptly introduced the “Buffett Rule Act,” an option on tax forms that would allow the rich to donate more in taxes to help pay down the national debt. It was, as Buffett told me for this week’s TIME cover story, “a tax policy only a Republican could come up with.”
Still, he’s willing to take them up on it. “It restores my faith in human nature to think that there are people who have been around Washington all this time and are not yet so cynical as to think that [the deficit] can’t be solved by voluntary contributions,” he says with a chuckle. So Buffett has pledged to match 1 for 1 all such voluntary contributions made by Republican members of Congress. “And I’ll even go 3 for 1 for McConnell,” he says. That could be quite a bill if McConnell takes the challenge; after all, the Senator is worth at least $10 million. As Buffett put it to me, “I’m not worried.” (See below for a statement from McConnell’s office.)
Listen to Buffett’s retort to McConnell’s contribution theory:
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE AUDIO
(Excerpt) Read more at swampland.time.com ...
If he pay himself $1 salary then pay %50 taxes. Thats nothing. If he want to call our bluff, then he should pay the 50% on his capital gain that his company get. Watch him cry poor then
Buffet got rich by sheltering his capital gains in his insurance companies.
What a BS headline. He is running away from a very good point. If you want to pay more taxes...THEN DO IT! Why hide behind the “Gee-I want to pay more but they won’t raise my rates”
He gets called out on it and his only response is “OK-I’ll pay more as soon as you do” and the liberal Time magazine says this is calling Republicans bluff.
TOTAL BS
You 1st,
Yuh fat &^%$K...
Here’s an idea Warren... why don’t you pay what you already owe, you ignorant, liberal a$$ clown.
He should have issued that challenge to the party which wants to raise taxes.
If Buffet is so concerned why doesn’t he simply just sit down and write a nice big fat check to the US Treasury? Why is he making this out to be a “if you do this, then I will do this” type situation. Because it’s all for public consumption and the stupid republicans, instead of saying, “you were the one complaining Mr. Buffet, so here’s your chance to make it all better”, they’ll stumble all over themselves trying to figure out how their response will ‘sound’ and be ‘perceived’.
This the guy who thought estate taxes are great things.
Then he sheltered his $ 46 billion estate in four foundations headed by each of his four offspring, so he would pay zero in estate taxes.
FUWB.
I will take Warren challenge. I will send $1 to the US Treasury for each $1 billion he sends. This offer is good through 4/15/2012. See small print on reverse for details.
Let's see. McConnell is worth about $10 million. Buffett is worth about $46 Billion. Make it 4,600 for one or shut up.
Where did Mitch get 10 Million? F***** Crook.
Did Buffet ever suggest that his secretary’s taxes be cut so that she pays the same percentage as he does?
You must have learned that from reading Time magazine.
I wish the media would challenge his claim that he pays a lower rate than his secretary...I mean request to see both returns, side by side and compare.
I’m sure the bulk of the difference is not in actual INCOME tax. Rather, it is likely that 100% of his secretary’s income is subject to the 6% social security tax, while probably zero percent of Buffet’s is - since he doesn’t earn income, but instead gets a return on investment.
The other discrepancy is that his secretary’s tax bracket is probably higher than his 15% cap gain tax. Now the bracket rate may be higher, but we have no idea how many deductions she has, to know whether or not she actually pays more than 15% of income. I make $75k and my federal income tax liability is 8%, after deductions - pretty average. So, I doubt his secretary really pays a higher rate - its just that the listed bracket rate is higher.
But this really just brings us back to the argument over whether or not to raise cap gain taxes....and even Obama has admitted that raising these hurts the economy. In fact, Buffet and Obama are lock step in this - the only reason to do is has to do with ‘fairness’....even though the federal government will collect less money.
And that is monumentally stupid...and nothing more than class warfare.
And why is Time so impressed by Warren's challenge? McConnell isn't the one calling for higher taxes.
One would think someone that rich, who's used to dealing in numbers that size, that it's completely impossible to pay down the debt with voluntary contributions. What an idiot.
Thank you for putting the words in my head into print. None of the this ‘you go first’ crap. Republicans don’t WANT tax increases, that’s the whole point.
Warren, I triple-dog dare ya!
WB isn’t doing a damn thing. HE posited a higher tax rate was good for people like him. HE is the one spewing such crap.
All Mitch did was say “Okay, Warren, put your money where your mouth is.”
NOW Warren says he won’t give unless someone else gives. Ergo, Warren is a hypocrite.
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