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Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett (file)
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett pleaded with Congress to raise his taxes in a new must-read New York Times op-ed. In his piece titled, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich," Buffett scolded the "billionaire-friendly Congress" for shielding him and his über-wealthy friends from paying higher taxes, as though they "were spotted owls or some other endangered species."
"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," wrote Buffett, who is considered the third richest man in America. He's willing to pay up to help cut the deficit, and threw cold water on the notion that paying higher taxes leads to businesses and people making investing less.
"People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what's happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation."
The piece offered specific advice to the debt super committee, charged with the daunting task of re-jiggering America's family budget to trim the 10-year deficit by at least $1.5 trillion:
"Job one for the 12 is to pare down some future promises that even a rich America can't fulfill. Big money must be saved here. The 12 should then turn to the issue of revenues. I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class, who need every break they can get."
All of the GOP members on the debt super committee signed Grover Norquist's pledge to never ever raises taxes.
Obama's already started to tout Buffett's op-ed on his bus tour today, using it as a case for increased revenues.
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See also: David DeGraw's The Beaten Masses: Confronted With Severe Financial Hardship, Why Do Americans Remain Passive?
His book, The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III, is scheduled for release Septembeer 28th.
http://daviddegraw.org/2011/08/the-beaten-masses-confronted-with-severe-financial-hardship-why-do-americans-remain-passive/
No one is stopping Mr. Buffett from writing a check to the government to make himself feel better!!
True—but irrelevant. To make the country better will require more than just one individual. About 399 more would be a good start. Have you read David DeGraw's article, linked above?
Susan it defeats the purpose. It is not just writing a check to gov. It is working together to solve this issue. he is showing an example that other super rich should follow. If my house is dirty, I'm not just going to clean it, NOOO I'm going to propose to have it cleaned to my family and we can all clean it together.
That is a real AMEN moment! Thank you Mr. Buffett
As much as I wish congress would listen to Buffet, I doubt that they will. :(
POLL: Will Congress listen to Warren Buffet and raise taxes on the super rich?Vote:
How could anyone expect the house and (or) senate vote to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires when more than half of them are millionaires themselves? Where is the ethics committee to tell them they should recuse themselves due to a conflict of interest for voting to keep their taxes low. Only in America! If you don't believe me, just do the search yourself. Why do the Teabaggers think this is fair? I have an idea, next time the folks on the hill want a pay raise why not put that to a vote with the American people. After all last time I checked they are our employees, aren't they?
My Dear, Mr. Buffet:
II salute you as the truly Humane Being you are. Thank you. Yours is the only word of Hope I've experienced since the last Debt Ceiling Disappointment. Thank you.
Nearly all the problems America is having right now stem from a single cause — special interests have bribed the politicians to do things that hurt the national interest, including two expensive and prolonged wars, and massive spending without raising corresponding revenue to cover the bills. The corruption has reached even into the John Roberts supreme court that made it effectively legal for anyone, including foreign countries, foreign corporations, terrorists, and criminals to “donate” unlimited amounts of money secretly to politicians. Until the Supreme Court Justice Roberts dies or resigns there is not much hope of cleaning up that fundamental corruption. But what you can do is boycott corporations you catch bribing/donating to politicians to do things against the national interest. Let them know you are boycotting. Such companies include: all the big oil companies, Microsoft, General Electric, the big pharmaceutical companies, the health insurance companies, wall street investment houses, and the Koch brothers empire of companies including Brawny Paper Towels, Dixie cups and Georgia Pacific.
The fact that the rich may opt to pay no taxes is a symptom of this general problem.
I believe in tax breaks for the super rich but only the super rich that are manufacturing in the US Only. To give tax breaks to the super rich for exploiting third world countries is robbery and treason.
Hey why invest in the US when you see the government of the US tanking it's own economy?
We need definitely to cut military spending and get out of all these countries we have no business in except to shore up imperialistic empires. We also need to stop supporting companies that manufacture outside the US, there was a reason for tariffs and now we have been sold this world economy bull. Which only equates to the US becoming a third world economy also with only the extremely rich and the extremely poor.
Buffet has the business sense to realize that an economy cannot grow unless enough people have jobs and money to buy the goods and services.
Gee what a horrible thought to have to pay a working class decent wages, well lets find another country to exploit and get the US military to back our imperialistic designs.
Slave labor and the right to pollute to your hearts content is what creates jobs in this new world order. Now aren’t jobs and corporate profits more important then the world and humanity? so far it seems that way.
I think Mr. Buffett is a great man for saying this. Thank you Mr. Buffett.
MSNBC is becoming so utterly irrelevant. They might consider actually reporting something worth while. I have always been a fan of MSNBC, but I just can't stomach low class cheap shots and mud slinging. There are plenty of political blog sites that do that. They better get their head out of their asses soon before they lose all credibility.
someone has to counter fox news.
if msnbc has to engage in what YOU call a little mudslinging and a few cheap shots, i see nothing wrong with it.