Posted on 08/15/2011 8:28:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue.
Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He says higher tax rates never kept him from investing.
So all the money he paid to the IRS he would have buried in the back yard instead of investing it.
How on earth did such a dumb man get so rich?
Warren, if you want to pay more taxes, just write a check and leave the rest of us alone.
This is easy for Buffett because he already earned his money. You could tax him at 100% and he’d still be rich. He earned a fortune in the low tax 80s, 90s and 2000s and now wants a tax increase. That tax increase will hit today’s growth producers. If Buffett really wanted to put his money where his mouth is, let’s have a gross wealth tax. Simply confiscate the wealth of anyone who is worth in excess of a billion dollars. Use the money to pay down the deficit. Let’s see how the hypocritical old Limousine Lib likes that.
So right. And why don't these socialist fat-cats voluntarily donate all their money to the government and leave us poor people alone. When they talk about “the rich” they are talking about the middle class. I think all the socialists in Hollywood the MSM and private sector who have only gotten rich because of the capitalist system donate their gains to the government. It's easy to be a socialist when you have millions because you are part of the ruling class and not the serfs.
And just exactly WHO is stopping his wealthy liberal from paying more? My experience with rich liberals is they hire CPA’s so they can pay the very least they can get away with... hypocrites.
You could do that and once that wealth is spent it’s gone.
But more to the point there are simply too many people who effectively pay no federal taxes at all - through EITC and similar schemes they live federal tax free. The argument that the rich must pay their “fair share” is both hollow and immaterial, since there are simply not enough rich to cover the deficit irrespective of the tax rate you assess. In fact, you could steal all their wealth (not income, wealth!) and you’d cover the deficit all right - for one year. But now, by doing that, you would have turned every rich man into a poor man, and then the next year comes. With nothing left to tax, what do you do now?
Mr Buffet could liquidate his entire empire and mail the proceeds to the US Treasure and it would cover a couple of days spending.
Shut up and pay up you hypnocrit.
The Rich Support McCain, the Super-Rich Support Obama 10/13/2008
http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2008/10/13/the-rich-support-mccain-the-super-rich-support-obama/
From Prof. Walter Williams of George Mason University:
This year, Congress will spend $3.7 trillion dollars. That turns out to be about $10 billion per day. Can we prey upon the rich to cough up the money? According to IRS statistics, roughly 2 percent of U.S. households have an income of $250,000 and above.
By the way, $250,000 per year hardly qualifies one as being rich. It’s not even yacht and Learjet money. All told, households earning $250,000 and above account for 25 percent, or $1.97 trillion, of the nearly $8 trillion of total household income. If Congress imposed a 100 percent tax, taking all earnings above $250,000 per year, it would yield the princely sum of $1.4 trillion. That would keep the government running for 141 days, but there’s a problem because there are 224 more days left in the year.
How about corporate profits to fill the gap? Fortune 500 companies earn nearly $400 billion in profits. Since leftists think profits are little less than theft and greed, Congress might confiscate these ill-gotten gains so that they can be returned to their rightful owners.
Taking corporate profits would keep the government running for another 40 days, but that along with confiscating all income above $250,000 would only get us to the end of June. Congress must search elsewhere.
According to Forbes 400, America has 400 billionaires with a combined net worth of $1.3 trillion. Congress could confiscate their stocks and bonds, and force them to sell their businesses, yachts, airplanes, mansions and jewelry.
The problem is that after fleecing the rich of their income and net worth, and the Fortune 500 corporations of their profits, it would only get us to mid-August. The fact of the matter is there are not enough rich people to come anywhere close to satisfying Congress’ voracious spending appetite. They’re going to have to go after the non-rich.
He’s either senile or one of the great hypocrites. “I got mine; you can go pound sand.”
Tax the rich, Buffett says. If it is true that preponderance of the rich are really family and corporate small businesses, then it essentially is another tax of the producers of jobs and community wealth, and that, IMO, is national suicide. Is it not??
Other than being an Obama cheerleader, is he really that far afield??
What about the ones who don't want to be forced to pay higher taxes. In a free society with a just government, the feelings of some doesn't justify the violation of the property rights of others.
where can we make sure he sees our “opinions” of the proles.
Hey Warren, here ya go. I’d like to see everybody fax Berkshire-Hathaway and any other entity that this old quisling owns this address
Gifts to the United States
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Room 622D
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Make a check out douche bag and show us how bad you feel about not being coddled. Oh and dissolve your scam charitable trust that acts like a tax free money pile for you and your children.
I hate self righteous hypocrites like Buffet.
I’m sure that he doesn’t even realize that if the country does the SHTF scenario, he’ll be the first put up against the wall. He needs to quit the politics of envy and reread up on the French Revolution. All the libs need to do that...... cause when the natives get restless, they strike at anything that has just an iota more than they do.
Don’t throw me into that briar patch, Brer Fox, says Brer Buffett.
First, he can always volunteer as much money to the govt as he wants.
Second, his suggestion is self-serving in some way. He stands to benefit from the scheme.
Sure...he’s already made his ka-billions of dollars. Now he wants to be one of the head socialists of the politboro. Can’t let the peasants have their shot.
Warren! Shut up and write a check!
Sure Mr. Buffet, that means a lot coming from you.
He’s got more hedges than an English estate.
There is a way to pay extra tax, for anyone, including the super rich. They just choose not to do it. Meanwhile they advocate higher taxes for Everyone. Liberals like Buffett and Gates could pay an extra Billion dollars a year if they wanted to. They just want to be seen as compassionate, and keep their money. Just like the rest of us.
I'm sure that sort of logic will go over well!
The super-rich can easily make magnanimous overtures like this, since, even if they give away a substantial part of their wealth, they’ll still have more than enough of a cushion for themselves and for several generations of descendants.
Middle-class people don’t have that luxury.
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