Buffett: Tax Me and My Mega-Rich Friends

[BluegrassCat]

Noble attempt, Yoda, to engage in a fact-based convo with these two, but they don't deal in facts. They deal in half-remembered GOP talking points, dishonest obfuscation and character assassination.

[russtafa]

the rich should always pass the benefits down to the middle class and the middle class should pass the profits on down to the poor and that's how the system go's

[russtafa]

if the system fails that's when the killing starts

[Faldur]

Noble attempt, Yoda, to engage in a fact-based convo with these two, but they don't deal in facts. They deal in half-remembered GOP talking points, dishonest obfuscation and character assassination.

Immelt, (CEO of GE and FOO), also scolded small business to get out and hire, "and get some action under way". All the while GE earned $14.2 billion dollars in profits in 2010, (of which they paid $0 in federal income taxes, sure helps being on Obama's Council on Jobs). Under Immelts stewardship GE has cut 21,000 american jobs and closed 20 factories.

Bluegrass should we also hold this mans opinion in high regard and follow his urgings to others? Sorry but I learned long ago to follow leaders that proclaim "do as I do", not "do as I say". Grats to Mr. Buffett for his financial success, but please excuse me if I do not take his statement as anything more than the political folly it was obviously was meant to be.

You want me to heed your advice Mr. Buffett, send the treasury a check for $1 billion. And maybe I will stop singing Margaritaville and pay attention.

[trish]

That's Trish's favorite...

There you go again OMK, proving yourself to be a piece of shit troll with snot for brains. You don't know me and you're in no position to know what my favorite anything is. I'll thank you to limit your comments to politics and religion and leave me out of it.

It might have been nice if Bush instituted a War Tax to pay for his Middle Eastern incursions, instead of putting two fucking wars on the credit card (a banker being China) and nearly bankrupting the country. That might not have been a favorite tax but it would have been much appreciated given the present shoguns he dug us into. Fucking republicans think they're brilliant when they the dumbest fucking idiots in the planet.

250K is a quarter of a million dollars. If you make that you're not uber-rich, but 250K is more than 3 times the real median income of the typical working American who labors 8 hours a day 5 days a week. The top 0.1% of the wealthiest Americans increased their income 10-fold. We can call these guys the uber-rich if you want. The point is: we can reduce the deficit from both ends, the spending end and the revenue end. On the tax end, collect more revenue (graduated) from those making upwards of a quarter of a million dollars a year. Because of the job shortage labor will never be cheaper than it is today. The school district next to mine just put in geothermal to lessen their energy costs. Companies were fighting for this contract. The school got a bargain it couldn't possibly have gotten in better times and the work was done twice as fast. So on the spending end: This is the time to put people to work by spending on infrastructure maintenance. Once people are back to work, demand for products will increase, the economy will return and we can start trimming the deficit. The wrong time to cut programs and lay off workers is when people most need those programs.

[BluegrassCat]

Immelt, (CEO of GE and FOO), also scolded small business to get out and hire, "and get some action under way". All the while GE earned $14.2 billion dollars in profits in 2010, (of which they paid $0 in federal income taxes, sure helps being on Obama's Council on Jobs). Under Immelts stewardship GE has cut 21,000 american jobs and closed 20 factories.

Bluegrass should we also hold this mans opinion in high regard and follow his urgings to others? Sorry but I learned long ago to follow leaders that proclaim "do as I do", not "do as I say". Grats to Mr. Buffett for his financial success, but please excuse me if I do not take his statement as anything more than the political folly it was obviously was meant to be.

You want me to heed your advice Mr. Buffett, send the treasury a check for $1 billion. And maybe I will stop singing Margaritaville and pay attention.

The fact that private companies are not doing this voluntarily is exactly Mr. Buffet's point. You can't fault corporations for following their mandate of profit maximization and you can't expect them to deviate from that narrow goal even when it hurts the country at large, that's where government comes in. It requires a leviathan to produce collective goods, something we've known for more than 3 centuries. But something the GOP has conveniently forgotten.

[onmyknees]

Obama's call to tax the weathy, is defined by the current tax codes, which puts all individuals making over $200,000, and families making over $250,000 into the same bracket. I doubt that Obama would be against making a separate bracket for incomes above 1 million. And that 'liberals' have a common view of what defines 'rich' is distorted thinking. But there are ways to make definitions of 'rich' from a broad concensus. One example would be to set a higher rate, based on the lowest income, for the top 2% of all tax payers.

What is your source for saying that the "millionaires tax" in New Jersey , caused revenues to decreased?

Meanwhile, a study by the Rockefeller Institute of Government found that millionaire taxes had positive impacts on several states. In the first quarter of 2010, California, New York, Hawaii and New Jersey all saw increases in tax revenue over the same period in 2009 after they instituted the tax, again suggesting that the tax’s effect on out-migration was negligible.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...llionaire-tax/


The issue with your post is that the article attributes many factual quotes from Buffet. You do not dispute any specific facts, however calling his statement "bullshit" implies that his facts are wrong. Tell me which of his facts are wrong.

My source?? The Governor, of course.

A faint voice can be heard from the left side of statehouses across the land.
"Tax the rich," it cries.
New Jersey Republican Gov. Christie recoils at those words. More taxes in a state that has the highest local tax burden in the United States - 12.2 percent of income, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation?
Never, Christie has vowed.
Try to increase the so-called millionaire's tax, he warned, and all those business owners who hire people will flee to more tax-friendly environs. "This is a tax which has proven to be destructive to job creation in states, and that's why states all over the country are rejecting it," Christie said.

Argue with him .

Point 2...you state... "I doubt that Obama would be against making a separate bracket for incomes above 1 million."

You don't say? Well then why the hell hasn't he proposed it? Please answer me that...I'll hold my breath. Because his threshold is 250K...that's why. That's what he thinks rich is...Please stop putting words in his mouth in an attempt to make him sound reasonable......it's embarrassing.

[yodajazz]

The fact that private companies are not doing this voluntarily is exactly Mr. Buffet's point. You can't fault corporations for following their mandate of profit maximization and you can't expect them to deviate from that narrow goal even when it hurts the country at large, that's where government comes in. It requires a leviathan to produce collective goods, something we've known for more than 3 centuries. But something the GOP has conveniently forgotten.

Exactly. Most everyone, rich or poor, will take the maximum benefits the law entitles them to have. Some talking heads will say the poor are lazy, for accepting benefits from government, but most everyone will use the system to their best advantage, such as taking the maximum deductions when filing their taxes. Lots of poorer people receiving food stamps in the US, will then have money to get a cell phone. Cell phones today, are not just a luxury, they are often a nescessity for someone seeking decent employment.

[yodajazz]

the rich should always pass the benefits down to the middle class and the middle class should pass the profits on down to the poor and that's how the system go's

I think this is where conservative ideas, have distorted collective thinking. It has been noted here before, most notably by Trish, but in reality money circulates in a complete circle. Money from the poor circulates to the rich, as well as vice versa, particular in US. So government monies which go to the poor circulates to the rich. For example, as I noted in my previous post, people who recieve food assistance, of purchase items like cell phones. The wealthy often have stock in cell phone companies in their portfolios. Here in the US the government has a program that gives cell phones to poor people who qualify. So while that person gets use of the phone, the money for it goes directly from the government to the phone service provider. Payment for Medicaid goes directly to the medical system. I bet there are doctors, who may make over $200,000 a year, (currently the US highest tax bracket), whose hospital systems recieve substantial sums from Medicaid payments. So my point is, that the idea, as expressed by Rustaffa, of money only passing down, gives rise to the idea that the poor, are a drain on societies resources. I have heard this expressed on this very forum, though not nescessarily by Rustaffa. This idea is not true. However, belief in the idea, is part of the foundation of the belief that it is good for the wealthiest to have a greater share, of the flow of money/wealth. I question whether this idea is really related to true conservative philosophy or not? However, I see it as the core belief of many on the right today. I say their essence, has been hijacked.

[hippifried]

You can't have a robust economy without a full flow of money going up, down, & spewing from the middle. If you concentrate government policy on one aspect of the equasion (like supply side theory), it can't maintain equalibrium & you have one panic after another. Trickles don't work at all. You have to have a freeflow in all directions. Right now, the "money" is all being hoarded at the top. That's the perception anyway, as told by the accountants. It's like you put a dam across a creek, then walk downstream & wonder where all the water went. It's all just numbers in a ledger. There's no limit to the "money supply". All the economic theories are loaded with tons of bogus assumptions, & none of them take dishonesty into account. We need a complete rethink.

On Buffet:
As usual, the spin misses the point entirely. He merely said that taxing the mega-rich (over $1 million annually) at the same rate everybody else is taxed, you lose the annual shortfall. Unlike all the roundabout theories that require more & more sophisticated math to justify continuing policies that don't work, this is just simple arithmetic, & what everybody except the rabid Reagan worshipers has been saying all along.. Him writing a check won't do anything. This isn't about charity. It's about taxes. Y'all know about them, right? The source of all government revenue, & therefore every bit of common infrastructure? Just another lame attempt to obfuscate the real issue. The charity angle is irrelevant.