Posted on 08/16/2011 7:02:42 AM PDT by Starman417
A number of my liberal FB friends are linking to Warren Buffet's NYTimes barf-ed, Stop Coddling The Super Rich. Apparently it's an "instant hit on the internet". Learjet limosine liberals like him and Hollywood elites love to demagogue the issue. They can afford to do so because they don't have to put their money where their mouth is and be taxed on their wealth:
As I wrote then, the super rich won’t mind at all if we “tax the rich” as it’s currently defined. That’s because people who are super rich don’t really pay taxes. They pay taxes on this year’s income, and capital gains on accumulated wealth. But the only “tax” that can ever touch what they’ve already made is inflation.That’s why a man worth $47 billion dollars can pay just $6,938,744 in federal income taxes and not be accused of a crime. In fact, he can boast about how little he pays, and ask to be charged even more.
That man is Warren Buffett. And his article in today’s NY Times, titled “Stop Coddling The Super Rich” is a huge pile of manipulative garbage.
The super rich love to talk about higher taxes on the rich because it’s a competitive barrier protecting them from competition. If the people making a lot of money today have to pay much higher taxes, they probably won’t ever accumulate enough wealth to be “super rich.”
Now if you really want to screw the rich, start talking about a wealth tax. It won’t save the economy but it’ll certainly serve to even everything out. Buffett wants a higher tax rate on himself and anyone making $1 million or more per year. If you doubled the tax rate on these people, someone making $1 million year would lose another 380,000 to the government.
Buffett calls for an increase in all types of taxes – income, dividend and capital gains. That would be a nice triple layer of protection against any newcomers, and still preserve all – 100% – of the $47 billion he’s accumulated until now.
Buffett is just fine with big new taxes on the rich because those taxes never touch all the under-taxed wealth he’s accumulated over the decades. He talks about how he’s benefited for decades by being under taxed, but is only willing to pay more in the future. That’s like a steroids-ridden baseball player declaring that steroids are bad and from now on no one gets to take them. But paying for past sins? Shhh.
I say if Buffett wants higher taxes, Buffett should get higher taxes. Take 50% of his wealth immediately. And everyone else who’s super rich. Hell, take 100% of everyone’s wealth over $1 million. That’ll even the playing field. We’ll do it again in ten years. Some sneaky people will figure out a way to cheat the system and accumulate more wealth than everyone else, but we’ll knock ‘em back down to earth again.
Think that’s crazy? In the late 90s Donald Trump proposed a one time 14.25% tax on the net worth of individuals and trusts worth $10 million or more. The goal? To pay down the national debt, and shore up Social Security.
Wealth taxes aren’t new, they’re just new here in the U.S. So the next time some super rich person stands up and says they must pay more taxes, ask them how serious they are. And then ask them how they’d feel about a wealth tax every year.
Rich people are very good at staying rich. And Warren Buffett is the smartest rich person I know. That’s why he’s able to say feel good bullshit about how he should be paying higher taxes when he has absolutely no intention of letting the government anywhere near his real money.
As for me, I think the government should be starved of income and be forced to spend money where it’s supposed to – defending the border, establishing a trusted currency, and protecting property rights. Whenever they muck around with the other stuff everyone gets poorer.
And also:
When President Obama pushes the idea of “taxing the rich” he’s actually talking about taxing those who are trying to get rich. His desired wealth increases won’t so much impact the “millionaires and billionaires” who draw his derision as it will cripple those eager strivers who hope someday to become millionaires and billionaires. The federal tax authorities don’t go after wealth but rather grab their share from income, hampering earning not luxurious living.The entire Medved article is a good read. What else happens when you only tax the rich?This explains the puzzling predisposition of progressive plutocrats who live primarily off their investments (or who won life’s lottery with inherited fortunes like the Kennedys or Rockefellers) to favor high tax rates on top earners. It’s not really noble or unselfish for those who have already earned their pile to seek to place new obstacles on hard-driving, up-and-coming challengers who seek to enter the charmed circle of privilege.
Those obstacles, however, will hardly benefit the nation as a whole. Isn’t it obvious that America needs more, not fewer, millionaires? And we want the numbers of poor and dependent people to shrink, not multiply.
While the left tries to foment indignation against wealth-creators, conservatives should respond with outrage at the moral inversion at the core of contemporary liberalism. Though progressives trumpet “fairness” as its guiding priority there’s nothing fair about society and government conferring generous dispensations on dysfunctional, dependent conduct and onerous special burdens on those who enrich both themselves and others. It is both unwise and, at the deepest level, unjust to promote hatred and resentment where gratitude is due and to offer indulgence and support for values that require correction.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Buffett needs to shut up and just write a big check made out to the U.S. Treasury. I’m getting tired of hearing him whine about being too rich and that the government should take away his money. Just send it to Washington you moron!
I’ve written to Hanity, Orielly, Glenn Beck, Limbaugh, and even Greta. I don't know why people aren't telling them to their face that there is no law that says you have to take deductions. If a billionaire pays himself with dividends or capital gains to get the 15% rate, then change that to regular income and pay the 40%. There is a provision that anyone can do right now to just write a check for any amount to apply to the debt. If there is a group of people that want to pay more, The government will take the money. I don't see what the problem is,.....other than them wanting ME TO PAY MORE TAXES ALSO.
Warren Buffet, Larry King, Bill Gates - they say they should pay more taxes; what they mean is I should pay more taxes.
The headline says it all. Buffett is a senile, drooling old creep who needs to shut his mouth and will his billions to the Central Socialist Government’s treasury!
I wonder if he changes his Depends himself or have another low-paid serf (his secretary makes $50M/Year) perform the chore?
I wonder what Buffett’s secretary gets paid. He claims she gets taxed at a 33% rate. MMMMMMMMMMM.
WOW!
This is THE MOST ACCURATE ASSESSMENT I HAVE EVER READ.
I just said this yesterday in conversation. We can shut this jerk Warren Buffet up. It’s called a NET WORTH TAX! Anyone with net worth in excess of 100 million must pay. And it starts at a rate of 40% with a net worth up to a billion. For net worth in excess of a billion it’s 90%!
These ego maniacs like Buffet do not believe in this crap. He wants to prevent YOU from becoming rich.
Lets start this conversation now. Wanna play class warfare fine. Let’s pass the “NET WORTH TAX” now!
Exactly ... if Buffet wants to pay more then shut up and put up.
There’s a couple of neighborhoods in London that would redistribute his wealth for him!
Try this one on for size and read past the first couple sentences and paragraphs:
It’s like a bunch of rich guys running around acting altruistic and claiming the death tax should be reinstated or at higher levels.
What they don’t tell you is their holdings include companies who profit from estate planning, income shelter, etc.
If the government has no death tax it is a direct competition to the insurance companies, law firms, Wall Street, etc.
Without the death tax there is no need for their services and such stringent estate planning.
Here is an excellent video explaining Warren Buffet and Berkshire-Hathaway. Get a cup of coffee and watch it. You will see the scheme explained and then you will get it.
Also note what companies he has acquired, how and why:
Why This Superrich Guy Likes High Taxes
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8035391/
Warren Buffett Benefited From Death Tax
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15951
Wanna know why Buffet pushed for TARP bailout?
Suffice it to say Berkshire owned stock in some largest receipents of TARP valued at $13 billion around that time.
Here is the funny part:
Buffett increased his bank holdings in September, while he was arguing in the media that Congress should approve the bailout to prevent the collapse of the global financial system.
TARP was approved in October of that year, just one month later!
It’s good to be king!
He actually said “if he didn’t think the government was going to act(in a way that would positive and accretive to hihis holding) he wouldn’t have been doing anything that week”. (paraphrased)
For more read here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/04/05/65496/buffett-champion-of-bailout-is.html
BofA in April 2009 was around $4 per share and is now trading at $13.80 per share as of 3/02/2001
Wells Fargo in April of 2009 was around $11 per share and is now trading at around $31 per share.
How about US Bancorp trading at around $14 per share in April 2009 and now trading at about $26 per share.
Goldman Sachs Group trading at some $51 dollars per share has now zoomed to above $160 per share.
How about those poor folks at American Express trading at just above $10 per share in 2009 and now they are trading at about $45 per share?
Bottom line: We, the schmuck taxpayer, paid to enhance the holdings of companies like Berkshire and investors in Berkshire.
I notice that most of the rich guys saying to raise taxes on the rich are rich enough that they can, so to speak, pay for tax lawyers and accountants out of pocket change.
The super rich avoid paying income taxes because many of them receive stocks as compensation instead of cash (bonuses in the form of stock options for many CEO’s). Therefore any taxes are deferred until they cash those stock certificates in.
So all this talk about “taxing the rich” ain’t gonna fly. Secondly, these 8,000 super rich Americans do not have an accumulated wealth that would even put a dent in the federal deficit. So you could steal all their money and still have over $10 trillion in debts...
This Chicago street thug president wants to stir up his street thugs because that is the only chance he has for re-election.
However, another kind of populism is gaining more power in the US, and it’s the Tea Party. 2012 can’t come soon enough...
Whoops! Did Eric Bolling Drop An F-Bomb In Heated The Five Argument?
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/whoops-eric-bolling-drops-an-f-bomb-in-heated-the-five-argument/
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