Warren Buffett urged lawmakers to raise taxes

[Chape]

(Reuters) - Billionaire Warren Buffett urged lawmakers to raise taxes on the country's super-rich to help cut the budget deficit, saying such a move will not hurt investments.

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice," The 80-year-old "Oracle of Omaha" wrote in an opinion article in The New York Times.

Buffett, one of the world's richest men and chairman of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc , said his federal tax bill last year was $6,938,744.

"That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income - and that's actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent," he said.

Lawmakers engaged in a partisan battle over spending and taxes for more than three months before agreeing on August 2 to raise the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling, avoiding a U.S. default.

"Americans are rapidly losing faith in the ability of Congress to deal with our country's fiscal problems. Only action that is immediate, real and very substantial will prevent that doubt from morphing into hopelessness," Buffett said.

Buffett said higher taxes for the rich will not discourage investment.

"I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone - not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 - shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain," he said

"People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off."

(Reporting by Santosh Nadgir; Editing by David Holmes) http://news.yahoo.com/stop-coddling-super-rich-buffett-084140678.html

[WallyWeaver]

You Can’t Tax the Rich Enough to Close the Deficit

Curtis Dubay

October 7, 2010 at 5:00 pm

President Obama has driven spending and deficits to historic levels in just two years since taking office. Not content to stop there, his budget for the next 10 years keeps spending at record levels and piles up unprecedented amounts of debt in the process. To partially offset his massive overspending, the President wants to raise taxes on “the rich.” His class warfare plan can take him only so far, however, since the rich don’t earn enough to make up the difference for all the spending he plans.

Obama’s current tax hike plan would raise the top two income tax rates from 33 and 35 percent to 36 and 39.6 percent, respectively. This tax hike will take effect on January 1, 2011, if he has his way and will slow the already badly struggling economy. This will keep unemployed Americans out of work longer and suppress the wages of those fortunate enough to retain their jobs. In fact, the higher tax rates Obama calls for will destroy an average of 800,000 jobs per year by the end of the decade and lower incomes by $720 billion over that same period.

Over the next 10 years, the Obama tax hikes will take almost $700 billion from taxpayers. That is only 8 percent of the nearly $9 trillion President Obama’s budget adds in debt over that same period. Low tax revenues are not the cause of the debt explosion; spending is. The Obama budget raises spending to almost 25 percent of GDP—well above its historical average of 20 percent. Tax revenue will soon exceed its historical average of 18 percent of GDP.

President Obama has repeatedly expressed a desire to sock it to the rich to cover for his profligacy, so it stands to reason he could stick them with additional tax increases to cover his gargantuan budget shortfalls. The President shows no signs he wants to reduce spending to lower the deficit, so tax hikes remain his most likely prescription. No matter how much he wants to “spread the wealth around,” if he goes the tax-the-rich route, he is in for a rude awakening.

Closing the more than $1 trillion deficit Obama’s spending would produce in 2020 by taxing only the rich would require a top income tax rate of 134 percent. Of course it is impossible to tax more than 100 percent of any taxpayer’s income. More importantly, any rate even approaching such a dangerous level would destroy the economy. Period. So even if it were mathematically possible to tax more income than the rich earn, there would be none of it left for the government to confiscate.

There is a better way. If President Obama and Congress committed to spending reductions, the deficit could be lowered to more acceptable levels without raising taxes a dime. If Congress and the President lowered spending to its historical average of 20 percent of GDP, the deficit would fall to a more manageable level, the national debt would stabilize, and an impending financial meltdown would be averted. Whether the President can let go of his soak-the-rich mentality and take this more sensible approach remains to be seen.

Link: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/07/you-can%E2%80%99t-tax-the-rich-enough-to-close-the-deficit/

[WallyWeaver]

The point of the article above is even if Warren Buffett and all of his buddies paid 100% of their income over the next 10 years it wouldn't even make a dent in the current deficit levels. The spending by the current administration has simply gone off the charts.

You have to respect Warren Buffett on financial matters, he has earned that. But the fact is what really needs to happen is lawmakers need to take a chainsaw to the Federal budget and do some serious cutting! Increasing taxes on anyone right now, even to 100% of their annual income, won't fix anything.

And yeah, yeah, I get it Ron Paul supporters.... the real way to fix the problem is to abolish the Federal Reserve. And I do agree with that. But the government also needs to spend less... much, much less.

[dtard]

Billionaire Warren Buffett urged lawmakers to raise taxes on the country's super-rich to help cut the budget deficit, saying such a move will not hurt investments.

WE AGREE!!!!

[WallyWeaver]

Billionaire Warren Buffett urged lawmakers to raise taxes on the country's super-rich to help cut the budget deficit, saying such a move will not hurt investments.

WE AGREE!!!!

Classic... +1

[debbieb40]

wow.. thank you for the post