Warren Buffett: Tax the rich
Read Time:1 Minute, 41 Second
Warren Buffet
one of the world’s richest men
is willing to pay more tax
TAX THE RICH
Well it couldn’t have been said any plainer or from anyone much richer. Is Congress listening?
Graph courtesy of P.A.P. Human Rights
(Reuters) – Billionaire Warren Buffett urged U.S. 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.”
Thanks to Reuters and YahooNews.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Buffet has been saying this for years. It was in the NY Times yesterday.
It is SO obvious, yet Obama and crew do nothing.
I assume by “crew” you mean Congress. It has always been Obama’s position to raise taxes on the wealthiest. That is very difficult to do when you have a Congress that is unwilling to go along with it.