Stop Coddling The Mega-Rich!

[dales]

Monday, August 15, 2011 2:13 PM EDT

Warren Buffett to Congress: Stop Coddling America's Rich People
By IB Times Staff Report

America's middle class has a friend in Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the country. Buffett, worth $47 billion, wants to pay more taxes and thinks his rich friends like Bill Gates and others should too.

Buffett has called on Congress to commit to "shared sacrifice" and raise taxes on people earning more than $1 million per year. Buffett also says America's rich are "coddled" by America's tax code and Congress "as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species."

It wasn't the first time Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and a resident of Omaha, Neb. has spoken out as an advocate for higher taxes for America's wealthy citizens. But this time he spoke directly to the 12 members of Congress appointed as the Super Committee, charged with deciding how to fix America's deficit problem and cutting $1.5 trillion or more from the federal budget.

Buffett wrote an op-ed piece in Sunday's New York Times urging the super committee to increase income taxes for the 236,000 people who earned more than $1 million in 2009, including taxes on investment profits like capital gains and dividends.

For the 8,000 people who earned more than $10 million in 2009, Buffett recommended an even higher tax increase.

"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," Buffett wrote in the op-ed piece.

Last year Buffett paid about $7 million in payroll and income taxes, he said. That figure equates to 17.4 percent of his taxable income. He said that proportion was lower than any of the other 20 people in his office, with tax burdens ranging from 33 percent to 41 percent.

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough," Buffett wrote, "by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

[Gob]

I don't know wether to giive him for that, or would it be too cynical to say; "anyone with his wealth could pay 90% tax on it and still be richer than I ever dream of being?"

[Liberty1]

He's free to pay whatever he wants. Anything beyong that is none of his business

[Rick]

Now if only Congress would see it that way...

[Long Run]

I'm sure the people that work 80-hour weeks and have a great year, or exercise their stock options for a once in a lifetime big payday, will be happy to have Mr. More Money Than God telling them they should be taxed like he would like to be taxed. Of course, Mr. Buffett can decide if he is going to have a billion dollars of income this year or zero, with almost complete discretion. For example, with his $48 billion, he may have $5 billion of appreciated assets, and not cash anything in; thus, by most accounts he made $5 billion, but had $0 in taxable income. Or, he could sell $1 billion worth of items that don't have any gain attached, and again, no taxable income. Most people, including many of the people he wants to hit with higher taxes don't have that freedom. Those that do have that freedom may well decide to not recognize a lot of income.

If we as a country decide that part of the solution to living within our means is higher taxes, then I think everyone's taxes should be raised by 3 percentage points. It is pretty easy for 90% of us to sit back and say someone else should pay so the "we" can live within our means. If we apply the base tax to all income then we are talking some serious revenue raising (since that would be a percentage of $12 trillion per year; 3% would get $360 billion per year). Right now, a $10,000 income earner pays no income tax, but probably receives a fair amount of government services. Pay 3% and that is $300. A $50,000 earner pays another $1,500 on top of the few thousand he pays now. The guy who is making $200,000 and already paying about 25% on average, pays an additional $6,000. And the $1 million man, pays another $30,000. No free rides on this one -- if we are going to raise revenue, let everyone pay. If you can't sell that, then the reductions to future spending increases have to be larger.

[Liberty1]

No free rides on this one -- if we are going to raise revenue, let everyone pay. If you can't sell that, then the reductions to future spending increases have to be larger.

I couldn't agree more, everyone should "share the sacrifice" as BO is always saying, which means the lower 48% of wage earners that right now pay zero in income tax should be paying their fair share.

[Rick]

Without getting into some mind bending Edi argument about money.

Congress will never let either proposition fly so there's no sense in worry...

[rubato]

When my income group was taxed at a higher rate we had zero deficit and rapidly rising incomes for all (including me).

We need to allow the tax breaks on the rich to expire. They were a stupid idea and resulted in a decade of economic stagnation (so far).

Only an idiot thinks that it is 'fair' to tax someone making $20,000/yr at the same rate as someone making over $300,000.

yrs,
rubato

[Liberty1]

Only an idiot thinks that it is 'fair' to tax someone making $20,000/yr at the same rate as someone making over $300,000.

Only an idiot would think that someone making X being taxed at Y% and someone making A being taxed at B% is fair.

We need to allow the tax breaks on the rich to expire. They were a stupid idea and resulted in a decade of economic stagnation

Did someone say idiot?

[dgs49]

(a) Mr. Buffett is free to pay the Federal Government whatever he wants. They WILL accept additional payments, no questions asked. Furthermore, if he is only paying 17%, then he is employing tax avoidance strategies that he apparently believes are bad public policy. Hypocrisy?

(b) Taxes are paid in DOLLARS, not percentages. A person making a hundred million is probably paying at least 25 million in federal income taxes, as well as a king's ransom in state, local, sales, and excise taxes. Isn't 25 million enough for any one person to pay? What difference does it make what PERCENTAGE of his total income that is? Enough is enough. Anyone care to explain why the Government is ENTITLED to confiscate a person's earnings to such an extent? It makes no moral or rational sense.

(c) Even if all the high earners paid some magical percentage of their taxable income (even when the marginal tax rates were higher, the cap was 50%), it still would not make a significant dent in the deficits that Barry and The Progressives have mapped out for us. Focusing on "The Rich" (sic) is a red herring, designed to distract us from the massive, crippling deficits that will ultimately make the USDollar worthless.

(d) Emanicpated adults making $20 thousand are generally not paying any federal income taxes.

(e) The deductions, tax credits, and other nonsense that populate the Tax Code ALL have a stated purpose and rationale that the Congress (our elected representatives) have determined are a good trade-off of benefits versus foregone tax revenues. For example, our precious mortgage interest deduction is intended to make home ownership easier. I personally would gladly give it up, since I have no mortgage loan and haven't for years. Anyone else care to give it up?

(f) Why is it that all efforts to rationalize and simplify the Tax Code go nowhere? Could it be that our Congresspersons depend on the disbursement of those goodies (deductions and credits) to rich individuals and corporations, to attract political donations? Nah.

[liberty]

Was it Jessie James that said the reason he robbed banks was because that is where the money is?

[dales]

No.

That would be Willie Sutton.

Addendumb:

STOP CODDLING THE MEGA-RICH!

[Grim Reaper]

(b) Taxes are paid in DOLLARS, not percentages. A person making a hundred million is probably paying at least 25 million in federal income taxes, as well as a king's ransom in state, local, sales, and excise taxes. Isn't 25 million enough for any one person to pay? What difference does it make what PERCENTAGE of his total income that is? Enough is enough. Anyone care to explain why the Government is ENTITLED to confiscate a person's earnings to such an extent? It makes no moral or rational sense.

It's quite frankly amazing watching you rabidly defend your corporate masters. You're willing to ignore making your own life better just to defend them.

Trying to focus on the dollars aspect is just a distraction from the real issue at hand. A person earning a hundred million a year is going to notice that twenty five million tax a lot less than a poor person being taxed to death like you seem to prefer.

(c) Even if all the high earners paid some magical percentage of their taxable income (even when the marginal tax rates were higher, the cap was 50%), it still would not make a significant dent in the deficits that Barry and The Progressives have mapped out for us. Focusing on "The Rich" (sic) is a red herring, designed to distract us from the massive, crippling deficits that will ultimately make the USDollar worthless.

$700 billion over ten years was the projected amount that would be brought in with an increase of taxes on the wealthy. Apparently that's not worth bothering with. Meanwhile, cutting a bunch of programs for the poor is completely necessary. $700 billion? pfah! Who needs that when we can cut a few million here and there from various services that the poor people rely upon!

(d) Emanicpated adults making $20 thousand are generally not paying any federal income taxes.

Speaking of red herrings. Nice job leaving out that they still have to pay various other taxes.

[rubato]

The Bush tax cuts cost about $290 Billion per year of which more than $200 Billion went to the rich (like me). So $1 trillion dollars was added to the federal debt enriching the rich.


As someone who makes > $300k/yr (not including investment income and both of us cut our working hours every year to keep our income as low as possible) I think you've fucked yourselves royally. How stupid are you?


We save about $89,000/yr pre-tax and can increase this amount, at will. HOW STUPID ARE YOU?

yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

1/6 of Americans currently rely on government programs to meet basic needs. 25 million Americans are unemployed, either actively searching to no avail or having given up the search entirely. The rate of multi-generational home-sharing is the highest it's been since the Great Depression - because otherwise millions of unemployed & underemployed would be homeless.

Someone we all care for on this board, a person we all know to be decent and hardworking, is currently suffering the indignity of extended unemployment. If he doesn't get work soon, the modest dreams of his family may begin to fall apart. Others on this board (myself included), highly educated professionals, have suffered extended unemployment after layoff in this terrible 'great recession'. Our modest dreams have suffered significantly as a result. Millions of aging Americans can't be sure if they will ever retire, despite diligent savings & investments over many years - because the robber barons cashed in while the rest of us regular folk paid dearly.

I simply cannot fathom how anybody could champion continued tax breaks for the uber-wealthy in these times.

[rubato]

"...

I simply cannot fathom how anybody could champion continued tax breaks for the uber-wealthy in these times.

I cannot fathom how people who will never benefit from the Republican "tax the poor to pay the rich" policies continue to defend them.

They are defending BORROWING over $200 billion per year to give to the rich and handing the bill to their children. Insane.


yrs,
rubato