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Warren Buffett Ready to Take Republicans’ Tax Challenge
TIME ^ | 01/12/2012 | RANA FOROOHAR

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: republican; tax; taxes; warrenbuffet; warrenbuffett
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To: Recovering_Democrat

He’s trying to make out the republicans as hypocrites,
but they aren’t the ones calling for “higher taxes on the rich”.

This voluntary contribution program has been around for a LONG time, and [un]remarkably few have actually “taken advantage” of this vehicle to put their money where their mouth is.

At first, with this article, I thought Buffay was actually going to pay more in taxes like he said he should. But no, he is still a chickensht hypocrite limosine lib.


21 posted on 01/12/2012 5:56:04 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: MrB

Mitch should point out that raising INCOME TAX rates wouldn’t affect the amount Muffet A$$ pays by one penny. There should be a tax on liberals.


22 posted on 01/12/2012 6:04:46 AM PST by TStro
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To: Moonman62
You must have learned that from reading Time magazine.

I don't read Time magazine. What's your point?

23 posted on 01/12/2012 6:09:30 AM PST by exit82 (Democrats are the enemies of freedom. We have ideas-the Dems only have ideology.)
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To: TStro

It’s said, accurately, that the poor tend to be democrat/socialist in order to get the “boost” from the government, the middle/working class tend to be republican/conservative in order to preserve what they’ve worked for,

and the truly wealthy tend to be communists, in order to secure their power and keep others out of the “nomenklatura”.

Warren’s living up to this observation. The reason he wants high income taxes on “the rich” is to keep them from becoming truly wealthy and joining the power group.


24 posted on 01/12/2012 6:26:21 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: SeekAndFind

Warren Buffet needs to pay the back taxes his company owes first. Then he can talk about meeting a challenge.


25 posted on 01/12/2012 6:45:44 AM PST by formosa (Formosa)
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To: scooby321
Where did Mitch get 10 Million? F***** Crook.

He's a politician; the crook-thing is implied.

Full disclaimer: I heard the net worth figure on the radio this morning and did not independently verify it.

26 posted on 01/12/2012 6:54:49 AM PST by tnlibertarian (Things are so bad now, Kenyans are saying Obama was born in the USA.)
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27 posted on 01/12/2012 7:07:45 AM PST by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list)
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To: exit82

RE: I don’t read Time magazine. What’s your point?

I think he wants to know your reliable source for the factoid that you brought up.


28 posted on 01/12/2012 7:15:19 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
Ohhhhh, Mr. Buffett.....

Tax The Rich? Good Luck With That By WALTER WILLIAMS 

Read it and weep.

29 posted on 01/12/2012 7:23:17 AM PST by mewzilla (Santelli 2012)
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To: exit82

My point was going to be that Time would never report such a thing, seeing how they and Warren are all Democrats, and want everybody but themselves to pay higher taxes.


30 posted on 01/12/2012 9:23:31 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Moonman62

Oh, I get you now.

A sarcasm tag would have helped!


31 posted on 01/12/2012 10:57:40 AM PST by exit82 (Democrats are the enemies of freedom. We have ideas-the Dems only have ideology.)
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To: Moonman62
Buffet got rich by sheltering his capital gains in his insurance companies.

He also favors the estate tax which takes the bulk of a deceased person's estate and often forces the heirs to sell a business, ranch or farm in order to pay the taxes. That is a twofer for Buffet. Life insurance proceeds when a person dies is not taxable. That encourages people to buy insurance. Also, like a buzzard sitting on a limb, he swoops in and buys good businesses at a low price when heirs are forced to sell.

Buffet is a Leftist predator like many other liberals.

32 posted on 01/12/2012 11:36:08 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: Mind-numbed Robot
Buffet is a Leftist predator like many other liberals.

They say one thing and do another. They are selfish bastards who only pretend to care about others. Al Gore, Pelosi, the Clintons, the Obamas, and John Kerry, among others belong on the list.

33 posted on 01/12/2012 1:44:17 PM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: urbanpovertylawcenter

LOL! I love it! Thanks for the snicker of the day! (always needed)


34 posted on 01/12/2012 3:15:28 PM PST by Outlaw Woman ( Hello, Hello...Remember me...I'm everything you can't control...)
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