Free Republic

-- In a recent New York Times op-ed article, Warren Buffett asserts that the super-rich do not pay enough taxes. He suggests that any new budget deal should raise rates on the super-rich, especially on their "unearned" income from interest, dividends and capital gains. Buffett is wrong. Bad government policies play a major role in generating inappropriately high incomes, but singling out the super-rich is misguided. And the policy Buffett criticizes most -- low tax rates on capital income -- should be expanded, not eliminated. The first problem with Buffett's view is that the number of super-rich is too small...

Southern California has more millionaires than just about anywhere else in the nation, with L.A. coming in at No. 1, Orange County at No. 4, and San Diego ranking No. 6 in cities with the most seven-figure-plus households in 2008. So maybe we should feel a little guilty, especially as President Obama and the GOP are headed toward draconian federal cuts, the United States' credit rating is down a notch, and the stock market is diving like a conservative congressman in a bathroom stall. Because many millionaires and billionaires, it was revealed today, don't pay taxes like you and me:...

President Obama has said that he wants to "spread the wealth". He proposes to raise taxes on "the rich" to get more money for "stimulus" spending, such as longer unemployment benefits. Let's look at how this "spread the wealth" thing would actually work. Joe Lunchbox works in a factory owned by Reginald Bigbucks III, a billionaire. Obama stops at the factory during a "Jobs" bus tour through the Midwest. Joe and his coworkers assemble in the lunchroom to hear Obama speak. "Good news," the president tells the workers. "We are going to be spreading the wealth. We are raising taxes...

Insecure business moguls like Warren Buffet occasionally spout anti-affluence nonsense like the rich “…should be paying a lot more in taxes.” If Buffet won’t defend the rich, I will. I love rich people. I wish them well and I hope they get richer. I specifically love rich people who live in a capitalistic society like America. The richer they become, the richer, healthier and happier everyone else becomes. Unlike rich rulers in a monarchy or, worse yet, wealthy dictators, American capitalists are the average person’s best friend and entrepreneurial inspiration. Wealthy Americans do not rule over other Americans. The Constitution...

There is a fascinating, if slightly disturbing, account in Mike Allen’s newsletter from Politico this morning: FLY ON THE WALL: Fifty of the most prized donors in national politics, including several hedge-fund billionaires who are among the richest people in the world, schlepped to a Manhattan office or hovered around speakerphones Tuesday afternoon as their host, venture capitalist Ken Langone (pronounced LAN-goan), a co-founder of The Home Depot, implored New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to reconsider and seek the GOP presidential nomination. The governor was firm that it’s not in the cards this time, but left his spurned suitors with...

Rarely has class-warfare rhetoric been so overwrought. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) “explained” the GOP’s motive in withdrawing from stalled debt-ceiling negotiations this way: Why? To protect oil companies. To protect the owners of yachts and corporate jets. To protect corporations that ship jobs overseas. To protect millionaires and billionaires from paying their fair share. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) fleshed out this explanation with a few specifics: When our Republican colleagues talk about defending against tax hikes, they are talking about . . . protecting the top 400 income earners in the country who, on...

There are now more medical marijuana dispensaries in the Mile High city than there are branches of Starbucks. In Denver, Colorado, there are nearly 300 locations where patients with a prescription from a doctor can legally buy medical marijuana, reports The Daily. New patients are often treated to a free joint, and have their choice of an ever growing array of strains of marijuana, many with colourful names like Golden Goat and Romulan Cotton Candy. Besides Colorado, 15 other states plus Washington, D.C., have laws that allow use of medical marijuana. This does not trump federal law, but the Obama...

During this contentious legislative session, we've seen rallies and protests against cutting from state government programs that help the disabled, elderly, and low income residents. But with Governor Mark Dayton insisting to raise taxes on the top 2% of the state's money makers, Republican lawmakers say those are small business owners who create jobs. We went out to see how a potential tax increase would effect them. "Don't worry, we won't tax jobs out of state," exclaims republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers. It's been the campaign and legislative slogan for State republicans: "No new taxes", citing small businesses as the...

It has become standard wisdom that tax increases on the rich are a necessary part of any bipartisan deal to avoid federal financial meltdown. It is simply not possible to talk to any member of the media about the substantial problems in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, or other entitlements without the first response being “but don’t revenues have to be on the table?” Why? It’s not like the numbers work. Obama’s budget itself proves that. The projected Obama budget deficit (as priced by the Congressional Budget Office) in 2021 is $1.2 trillion — and this assumes...

More and more Chinese millionaires are investing overseas, and many are doing so in order to immigrate to another country, a new report showed Wednesday. The 2011 Private Wealth Report, published by China Merchants Bank and business consulting firm Bain & Company, showed that the number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) in China exceeded 500,000 in 2010, 19 percent more than in 2009. According to the study, those who have at least 10 million yuan ($1.53 million) worth of individual assets (financial assets, not including their primary residence) available for investment are defined as HNWIs. Among that group, nearly...

If President Obama's deficit-reduction speech today includes a call to end the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, there will surely be pushback; Republicans have already begun a preemptive attack on raising taxes. One group of millionaires, however, is saying that they are more than willing to pay more for the good of their country. The “Patriotic Millionaires” penned a letter to Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner, urging them to “increase taxes on incomes over $1,000,000.” The Millionaires—a group that includes producer and director Doug Liman, actress Edie Falco, the founder of Ask.com,...

Are the rich really getting richer? That’s a pretty standard line from the Left, a lament usually cited in the course of calling for higher tax rates. Robert Reich is particularly fond of this mode of attack: A recent post of his was headlined, “For 70 years, the wealthy have grown wealthier.” Professor Reich probably doesn’t write his own headlines, but it’s a common enough sentiment for him, and his prose is rich with phrases such as “the super-rich got even wealthier this year.” He isn’t alone in employing this mode. Take this from an April 7 Salon article: “And...

This long attack on the unfairness of progressive taxation from the Hoover Institution by Kip Hagopian usefully embodies a lot of right-wing delusions about income inequality. It argues that a person's income is determined by three things: America’s free enterprise system provides an environment in which the substantial majority of its citizens can realize their fullest earnings potential. Within that environment, individual economic outcomes are the product of a combination of three elements: aptitude, work effort, and choice of occupation. Aptitude. For the purposes of this essay, aptitude is broadly defined as the capacity to produce, or to earn income....

....Seventy-eight percent of likely California voters support a 1 percent increase in the income tax rate for Californians earning more than $500,000 a year, according to the poll, which was conducted by Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin and sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers. .....The teachers union is looking to partner with other labor groups to put the tax before voters in November. Such a measure would need approval from two-thirds of voters. The measure is seen as a "sweetener" to lure more voters to the polls should there be another measure on the ballot in the fall asking voters...

As Brad Williams walked the halls of the California state capitol in Sacramento on a recent afternoon, he spotted a small crowd of protesters battling state spending cuts. They wore shiny white buttons that said "We Love Jobs!" and argued that looming budget reductions will hurt the Golden State's working class. Mr. Williams shook his head. "They're missing the real problem," he said. The working class may be taking a beating from spending cuts used to close a cavernous deficit, Mr. Williams said, but the root of California's woes is its reliance on taxing the wealthy. Nearly half of California's...

House, Senate Dems break from Obama's tax policy for wealthyBy Bernie Becker - 03/20/11 06:00 AM ET Democrats in both chambers of Congress are pushing for legislation that would raise taxes on millionaires, breaking from President Obama who has long endorsed tax increases for families making more than $250,000. The strategic shift comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are beginning to discuss tax reform, and are poised once again to engage in the debate over whether the Bush-era tax rates should be extended. In an interesting development, liberals are calling for taxes to be raised on people making more than...

So it turns out millionaires get money envy too. Apparently the benchmark for when the rich actually think of themselves as rich, is about $7.5 million, according to the results of a Fidelity Investments survey on the subject, says the NY Post. Over 1,000 households were surveyed that had an average of $3.5 million in investable assets. Less than half of those, approximately 42 % said they don't feel like they're rich, and would need about $7.5 million to make them feel: I'm wealthy. Apparently those that did say they think of themselves as moneyed, "were younger on average and...

Some activists want wealthy Jane Harman to pay for special election voteBy Sean J. Miller - 02/21/11 06:08 PM ET A grass-roots movement fueled by anger over the cost of a special election for Rep. Jane Harman’s (D-Calif.) seat has sprung up in the coastal towns surrounding Los Angeles. Harman announced Feb. 7 that she was stepping down as the representative for California’s 36th district to become head of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, a Washington-based research institution. She’s set to remain in the House until Feb. 28, according to her office. Her departure only two months into...

We keep hearing the argument that we have to tax the rich. We hear how the rich have all this wealth and that because of their great amounts of wealth; they can afford to pay more taxes. But here is the problem; we tax income, not wealth. Here is an example that will hopefully clarify the situation. We have two families. The first family has five million dollars in savings accounts in numerous banks earning two per cent interest and no other income. This gives them an income of one hundred thousand dollars a year. Living on their family estate...

Nearly 76,000 Iranian Jews moved to Israel since 1948 and Immigration Ministry officials and the Knesset committee for immigration are trying to find ways to encourage the remaining 25,000 to move to the Jewish State. One major obstacle is the comfortable position of many Iranian Jews, despite their children starting school every day with the chant “Death to Israel, Death to America.” Marking International Human Rights Day, the Knesset Committee on Immigration discussed the situation with Israelis from the Turkish and Iranian Jewish communities in Israel. “I ask Jews in Iran why they stay there, and they tell me they...