Free Republic

Taxes: The Senate hasn't passed a budget in over a thousand days, yet it has time to consider one member's bill to make the no-growth logic of the administration's favorite billionaire the law of the land. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat from the state ranking among the highest in foreclosures and unemployment, would prefer leaving the ship of state to drift rudderlessly. "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it's done, we don't need to do it," Reid told reporters Friday. Reid's idea of getting things done is punting to a supercommittee...

There was very little that was really new in the president's agenda-setting State of the Union address to the nation Tuesday. Since when is it new when Barack Obama calls for higher taxes on our economy? He had little to say about the government's $15 trillion debt, nor about the yearly trillion dollar plus budget deficits he's piling up. Even though the Gallup poll says the voters place these issues among their top three concerns, along with the economy and jobs. Nor did he have much to say about the serious troubles millions of Americans still face in the oppressive...

Only a president long shielded from criticism and accountability could make the kind of State of the Union speech President Obama did Tuesday night. It's hard to know where to begin, given his repetition of tired ideas from his previous SOTUs, his taking credit for successful policies he resisted and omitting failed ones he promoted, his numerous misrepresentations on issues big and small, and his glaring refusal to address the main issues that threaten the nation. Let me touch on just a few highlights in this brief space. Excessive spending is the primary threat to our nation's and Americans' financial...

Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the President’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss. Bosanek’s prominent role in Obama’s “fairness” campaign piqued my curiosity, and I imagine the curiosity of others. How much does her boss pay this downtrodden woman? So far, no one has volunteered this information. The IRS publishes detailed tax tables by income level. The latest results are for 2009. They show that taxpayers earning an...

'Whatever people bring to us, we're ready to haul' (BLOOMBERG) — Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit. With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department. “Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said in an...

Not since his minions handed out lab coats at a White House Obamacare rally has Barack Obama committed such a lame or electorate-insulting act of political theater. But it's just part of the class war he must wage if he's to get re-elected. Code word: fairness. Politico: Billionaire Warren Buffett's longtime secretary will be joining first lady Michelle Obama in her box at tonight's State of the Union, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer announced on Twitter. Debbie Bosanek, who has worked for Buffett for nearly two decades, has become a symbol in the White House's fight over the tax code...

Warren Buffett has written his first check to the U.S. Treasury since announcing his pledge to match Republican donations to pay down the national debt a week ago. Carol Loomis, Fortune's senior editor-at-large and long-time friend of Buffett's, reports that the Omaha investor received a letter from Congressman Scott Rigell of Virginia (pictured below). In it, Rigell details the $49,000 he had donated to Treasury in total in 2011 and 2012 and asks Buffett to match both (full letter is below). Buffett agreed (full letter below). Lest we raise your hopes that the national debt is over as an issue,...

Listening to an interview of Peter Schwiezer talking to Steve Bannon (Director of Palin's Undefeated movie)...There's a whole chapter in Peter's new book exposing Warren Buffet. Supposedly he is involved in insider trading. This chapter of Schweizer's book shows how his company got the sweetheart deal to invest in Goldman Sachs in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis. One member of Congress even bought Berkshire stock the day before the deal was even announced....It was a racket!

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett revealed Wednesday that he made $62,855,038 last year, paying $6,923,494 in income taxes (or about 17 percent of his $39,814,784 taxable income) and $15,300 in payroll taxes. With Buffett concerned that he does not pay enough in taxes, congressional Republicans have introduced legislation to allow Buffett — and others who believe they are under-taxed — the easy option of voluntarily donating to the U.S. Treasury on their tax forms.

House GOP proposes 'Buffett' tax rule By Pete Kasperowicz - 10/06/11 08:42 AM ET Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and eight other House Republicans on Wednesday moved to counteract President Obama's campaign to raise taxes on the rich by offering legislation that would make it easier for wealthy taxpayers to donate as much of their money to the government as they wish. Scalise introduced the "Buffett Rule Act," H.R. 3099, which would require the IRS to create a new line on people's tax forms to let rich taxpayers pay extra to help pay down the debt. The bill bears the name...

CNN business correspondent Christine Romans claimed Monday that "any serious budget expert's analysis" concludes that taxes must increase. During CNN's coverage of President Obama's address concerning his deficit reduction plan, Romans asked not if, but when Republicans should get on board with his proposals. "So at what point do Republicans say, okay, we agree that taxes have to go up, and here's what we'll agree to?" Romans posed to former Bush CBO director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. According to Romans, President Obama's proposal to raise taxes on millionaires is just fine. "So what's wrong with raising taxes for that crowd so they're...

Liberal group takes credit for audience member asking Obama to raise taxes By Alicia M. Cohn - 09/28/11 09:32 AM ET Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, a campaign by the progressive group The Agenda Project, on Tuesday took credit for a member of the audience who asked President Obama to raise his taxes during a town hall meeting in Silicon Valley on Monday. “Will you please raise my taxes?” the man said. “It kills me to see Congress not supporting the expiration of the tax cuts that have been benefiting so many of us for so long." It was a...

When Irish rockers U2 took to the main stage at this year's Glastonbury music festival, a small but vocal group of activists raised a large balloon emblazoned with the words "U Pay Tax 2?" Most people in the 60,000-strong crowd barely noticed the stunt on a rain-lashed night, but the world's media latched on to the protest and gave it prominent mention in their reports of the eagerly awaited performance by one of rock and roll's biggest acts. Years ago the band transferred some of its assets from Ireland to the Netherlands, as did members of the Rolling Stones, prompting...

Pressed by House Republicans and the Wall Street Journal editorial board to release a copy of his tax returns to justify the so-called "Buffett tax," the Oracle of Omaha said he would comply if News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch did the same. "I think it might be a terrific idea if they would just ask their boss, Rupert Murdoch, and he and I will meet at Fortune, and we'll both give you our tax returns and you can publish them," Buffett told Fortune's Carol Loomis. "I'm ready tomorrow morning," he said. In a New York Times column, Buffett asked Congress...

Bluff Called. Senate Republicans demanded that Warren Buffett, the namesake of Obama’s tax hikes, turn over his tax returns so they can be compared to his secretary’s returns. Buffett says his secretary pays more taxes than he does. Bluff Called. Senate Republicans demanded that Warren Buffett, the namesake of Obama’s tax hikes, turn over his tax returns so they can be compared to his secretary’s returns. Buffett says his secretary pays more taxes than he does. Republicans want to see Buffett’s tax returns. The Hill reported: The GOP is making a concerted effort to pressure billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett...

Let's hope that Warren Buffet is better at managing funds than he is at tax policy. After Buffett complained that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does, Barack Obama decided to call his new class-warfare taxes “the Buffett Rule” and emphasize that he wants to make taxes more “fair.” But was Buffett right? According to an AP fact check — and just about every ounce of common sense that exists outside of the class-warfare fever swamps of the White House these days — not at all: “Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires,” Obama...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he wants to make sure millionaires are taxed at higher rates than their secretaries. The data say they already are. "Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it," Obama said as he announced his deficit-reduction plan this week. "It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million." On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes...

Obama and Warren Buffett - and the President's new "Buffett Rule" tax proposal - got fact checked by AP about their outlandish claim that secretaries pay more in taxes than their bosses. "Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires," Obama recklessly proclaimed Monday. "That's pretty straightforward. It's hard to argue against that." When put that way, yes that is hard to argue against. However... (Associated Press) - The data tells a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government...

Confirming that one has to be a billionaire or at least a multi-millionaire to be an applicant for the Tax Czar position under the Teleprompted Wealth Readjuster, is the latest sheer class warfare idiocy out of tax expert du jour Harry Reid, who has proposed an overhaul of the Obama tax bill with one in which millionaires end up paying a 5% surtax. National Journal reports: "Senate Democrats will replace tax increases proposed by President Obama to pay for his $445 billion jobs bill with a more politically popular tax increase on millionaires, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said...

The justification for President Obama's new proposed tax on the wealthy is wrong on the numbers. Despite the president's claims, millionaires don't pay lower tax rates than middle class workers. His proposed surcharge on capital gains and dividend taxes will raise already high tax rates on high income individuals and force even more investment outside the United States. The so-called "Buffett rule" is based on Warren Buffett's claim: "The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per...