Stop Coddling the Super Rich- Warren Buffett

Good post.

I long for the day when the GOP was more concerned with fiscal responsiblity than with far right-wing Evangelicals spouting creationism and anti-abortion platforms.

Now we have a gaggle of candidates raising their hands against tax increases even if spending cuts are 10x as great as the tax increases.

Idiotic.
 
Income is not the best indicator of wealth. Wealth is an excellent indicator of wealth. Income tax rates should be based on net worth. I mean, I hate to see Warren Buffett be so upset about his low tax rates.
 
ok I missed the part in the article where Buffet announced that he sent millions ( or even Obama announcing that he sent his " hundreds of thousands that I don't need) to the Treasury.

Until they do that their rants ( Buffett and obama et al ) are just that rants.

This gets a little old. Buffet or someone like him announces he wants to pay more, then someone on here posts that
BUT they NEVER do pay more to the Treasury.
If these people sincerely cared they would have sent more each year.
BS is all it is
 
I'm all for reforming the tax system so that the near half of Americans who pay nothing have to put some skin in the game.

Seems fair to me - if you're going to go the the welfare office with your hand out, you ought to have to put something back in. Once we come up with a FAIR TAX system that insures everybody pays a set percentage then we can look at closing "loopholes" (I love this talking point - notice how all of a sudden everybody is using this term?) that those evil rich men (and evil corporations too! Can't forget about them!) exploit.
 
I think Buffet's suggestions are solid.

Keep in mind that they're quite a bit different than Obama's.

$1 million is far different from $200 thousand.
 
Where is Obama's "balanced approach" here when Buffet and Co. pay 17% or more of his income in taxes and half the tax payers in America pay 0%? Where is the justice in that?
 
The "well why doesn't he just send the extra money into the IRS" complaint is silly. Why don't we just make all taxes voluntary? People should pay what they feel the government deserves to achieve adequate revnues. What would happen then? No one would pay. Then would we say "well, those that are saying we should not have a volunteer tax system aren't paying 30% in, so they have no credibility? No. The reason why those people wouldn't pay is because their paying doesn't guarantee anyone else would. Buffet could pay his 30% but unless all the other people making millions from investments do also, there is little effect on revenues. To have significant effect all those making millions from investments would have to pay 30%.

Taxation is a classic collective action problem, and the best way to deal with collective action problems? Representative government.
 
johnny

Name one, just one single GOP congressperson that has spoken out against ALL spending. Why do you people keep trying to pretend conservatives want ZERO taxes or ZERO spending?

To your point I would post against any pol who denouced all spending except what went in their district/ state if that money was what most reasonable people would consider wasteful ( an airport that serves 30 people, a treadmill researxh project for shrimp etc).
Point it out and I will rail against it and send a lettter to the pol asking for it

Now, back to topic. has Buffet or any who beg to be taxed more actually sent more in as they can do? what about obama who admitted he had " hundreds of thousands of dollars I don't need." Did he send in extra in?

Until they do this is all BS
but you know that
 
time for a fair tax code overhaul that cuts out all the "loopholes" and a level playing field.

WB can always send more money to the Treasury. They will cash his check. That goes for liberals on this board too who what to pay more in taxes.
 
cycle
"Buffet could pay his 30% but unless all the other people making millions from investments do also, there is little effect on revenues."

Now THAT is silly. Buffestt isn't the only one to whine to pay more thaxes. there is a vid on youtube with many 'rich' people begging to be taxed morem yet not one of them either has sent more in.
buffett could afford to send billions and you think that wouldn't add to the revenue? How about Gates? he wnats to pay more, he could send billions. How about gates father? he wants to send more, he could send billions too
pretty soon you are talking real money.
Not silly at ll
if they really mean it put their money where their mouth is.walk their talk
bet no one will
 
Some of you guys are missing the point- from a gentleman well above your pay scales in both intelligence and experience.

It's not that he "wants to pay more in taxes"- nor is he a liberal for doing so. He and many others, including those who are just middle class, are pointing out that the current tax codes are unbalanced and reward things that do not need to be rewarded, while on occasion punish areas that shouldn't be. It's really that simple.

Whether or not poor people pay taxes is another issue, related, yet separate.

Some of you seem a little upset that a successful businessman with more IQ in his feces than others have in their entire minds is proposing an idea that makes perfect sense yet conflicts with their political propaganda. Warren Buffett doesn't tell tea party supporters to stop paying taxes when they say they hate taxes, read the article he wrote- you may learn something about carried interest, capital gains and producing jobs that you won't learn on fox or a blog.
 
They're not talking about sending billions, just a reasonable portion of their income...comparable to what the average american pays. Buffet calling up gates and saying "hey, you want to do 30% this year?" would not have as significant impact on revenue. Buffet said he paid about $7 million last year, 17.4% of his taxable income. Double that and it's a revenue increase of $7 million. Say Gates makes the same, then it's $14 million. What are total tax revenues? $2.1 trillion. So Buffet and Gates pact would result in a about a one thousandth of a percent increase? Not significant.

Now, Buffet could make a lot of phone calls to his buddies and get a lot of pledges to agree to this new voluntary tax rate. A large enough number of agreements and if things were organized well, would also take care of the collective action issue. But then why do we need government at all? Let's just all form rules and agreements on our own. Heck, we could even write up a constitution to solidify it all. Have a system of representation. We could call ourselves...oh, I don't know...the United States of America.
 
mcbrett
"Warren Buffett doesn't tell tea party supporters to stop paying taxes when they say they hate taxes"

No no no. do you know what the TEA in TEA party stands for. Taxed enough already
They don't say they don't want to pay taxes. never have said that, never will
they say we are paying enough taxes and SPENDING TOO MUCH.
but you and others keep ignoring that and saying tea partiers, conservatives republicans whatever don't want to pay taxes.
Intelligent people who can and do read understand the difference.

I think a flat tax would be fairest to all.
 
You could call Warren Buffett a rich person- if that's how you want to view him. Or, you could think of him, as I do, as a man who grew up from a modest background and has had a long, long series of successful ideas, projects and ventures.

If class warfare works for some when it disagrees with their views, go for it- but taking it personally when someone more qualified than ourselves tells you their thoughts- and much like most of his business ideas- they make great sense- sounds like a personal issue instead.

I think I'm smart- and I think we all here believe we're smart, but I believe a part of intelligence is recognizing when you are in the face of someone smarter or more experienced, and instead of getting upset about it- using it as an opportunity to get closer to their level.
 
No sht he's rich Perham- but everytime the guy speaks doesn't mean we should refer to the comment as "what the rich guy says/wants." There happens to be a brain behind the bank accounts..that was my point.
 
So Buffett mentions there are 8379 super rich. Think it could help us all if these super Rich gave the treasury a billion each?
As obma likes to point out, they can afford to give more.

so let them and then if it that 8.4 trillion actually gets used to reduce the deficit we should raise their tax rates. But if congress simply spends even more or if as obama keeps saying, that he wants to work on NEW programs then it will have, as a lot of other people's money, been wasted,


let's try it before we change anything.
 
This coming from the guy, who is donating most of his fortune to charity. Which coincidentally means avoiding that pesky estate tax. Hmmmm.

Oh, and some of those charities will be run by his children.
 
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