Warren Buffett

Shocking News: Secretaries Don’t Pay More than Buffett

Mark Noonan10 Comments

Yet another liberal lie disposed of  – from the AP:

…There may be individual millionaires who pay taxes at rates lower than middle-income workers. In 2009, 1,470 households filed tax returns with incomes above $1 million yet paid no federal income tax, according to the Internal Revenue Service. But that’s less than 1 percent of the nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1 million.

This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes, payroll taxes and other taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay an average of 15 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent…

Doubling up on the dishonesty is the fact that Buffett routinely takes advantage of every tax break he can – and, indeed, has on-going disputes with the IRS as it claims Buffett owes more than he paid.  The bottom line is that the “millionaires pay more than secretaries” is a lie while the actions of people like Buffett prove that the call for a tax hike isn’t to make the rich “pay their fair share” but to allow Obama to more heavily tax the upper middle class (remember, in Obamunism, “millionaires and billionaires” start at $200,000.00 per year for individual income earners).

All part of the scam, at any rate.  Buffett makes his money off of the current, corrupt way of doing business.  If it weren’t for our Byzantine tax and regulatory codes and the ability of billionaires like Buffett to grease the palms of politicians, Buffett never would have made his money – certainly no where near the billions he currently has.  Buffett is a liberal financial shark who grows fat not out of creating wealth, but by siphoning it off from the productive by means of financial shennanigans.  But this does give Buffett a vested interest in the status quo…if the liberal State is swept away, so will Buffett’s ability to maintain and grow his horde.  And not just for Buffett, but for a host of such economic parasites.

So, come up with bogus stories claiming that secretaries pay more than billionaires, help Obama increase taxes on “the rich” which really works out to tax hikes on middle class people while the Buffetts of the world are unscathed…and finally hope that all the class warfare rhetoric and actions helps Obama get re-elected so the gravy train can keep rolling along.  That is all this was ever about…and it is all it ever will be about until we turn these cretins out.

 

Buffett’s Obama Bail Out

Mark Noonan9 Comments

Why  did Buffett buy $5 billion of Bank of America stock? Mish suggests that Buffett was just trying to energize financial stocks, in general, as he’s up to the gills in them and puffing them up would allow him to unload all other financials before they go “poof”. That could be it, but I think there was more going on.

Warren Buffett’s most prestigious investment these day is President Obama.  If Bank of America had failed – and it is still “one foot in the grave, other on a banana peel” – then it would likely have served as the trigger for a general financial collapse…begin Great Depression II, end of any chance for Obama’s re-election.  While this would have hit Buffett hard financially there is still the fact that if you’re worth $45 billion and lose $10 billion, you’ve still got $35 billion left.  Buffett remains rich no matter what – ego is involved here.

Buffett has specially bought in to what Obama stands for…his image of himself stands or falls with the success of Big Government liberalism.  Buffett told us that Obama was The One; Buffett tells us that if we’ll just tax and spend some more all will be made well; Buffett tells us that it is us knuckle-dragging conservatives who got it wrong.  But if Obama fails, then Buffett got it massively wrong.  Buffett is not about to be proved wrong by a bunch of bitter-clinger adherents of that worn out, has-been Constitution!

It won’t work – Buffett has seemed like a savvy businessman because he’s piled up huge amounts of cash by milking the Big Government, fiat-money, usury-based economy for all its worth.  That economic model, though, has now gone on as long as it can.  We’re bankrupt; there is simply no more money to borrow, any more printing will just touch off ruinous inflation…its all done gone up the spout, as it were.  Buffett may think that if he throws around a few billion it will change the dynamic…all it will do is delay the inevitable, and not by nearly as much as all of Bernanke’s trillions in fake money.  Not only is Buffett about to be proved wrong, he’s also going to be proved a bad businessman…someone who can only make it in a ponzeconomy, but has no relevance to one based on hard work, thrift and careful investment.

UPDATE:  Buffett is also relentlessly avoiding taxes…this report shows that he’s arguing with the IRS over taxes unpaid since at least 2002.  Yeah, he really wants to pay more…

Warren Buffett Wants His Taxes Raised

Mark Noonan114 Comments

From the New York Times:

…Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — 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.

If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot…

First off, Warren, if you really want to kick in a bit extra, then why did you have your team of lawyers and accountants (I’m sure you’ve got them) work the system so that you only paid an effective tax rate of 17.4%?  It is no problem for you to pay more – just take fewer deductions.  Or, if you want, just cut a billion dollar check to Uncle Sam.

Of course you won’t do that – not for you to just step up to the plate.  That wouldn’t advance your true cause here…keeping Big Government going through a round of tax hikes which might, indeed, take a little more from your annual income, but which will mostly hit people of far less wealth than you.  Because, dear Warren, you know better than most the truth…for all the billions you have, your wealth is chump change compared to the hundreds of billions held in smaller amounts by the people who make 200k or more per year.

Liberal financial sharks, like Buffett, thrive in a system of fiat money, government-subsidized debt and Big Government graft.  If that system comes to an end – via bankruptcy – then the Buffett’s of the world might have to get a real job.  You know, produce actual wealth  in order to make money.  The thought is too horrifying to contemplate.  So, rather than see their milch cow go down, they write Op-Eds in the New York Times which will then be cited by liberals as justification for higher taxes:  “see, even someone as rich as Warren Buffett wants a tax hike!”.   Sorry, Warren – too bad, liberals:  we’re on to the scam.

I propose a way to test this willingness of Buffett and other bazillionaire liberals to pay taxes.  Rather than hiking income taxes, why don’t we tax wealth?  I propose a 5% tax on all wealth in excess of $5 million.  Total it up for us, Warren – how rich are you?  Forbes says you’re worth $45 billion.  This means we want $2.25 billion from you next year.  And the year after.  You’d better hope your investments hold up, huh?  I know you were hoping for a “soak the middle class” tax hike which also might have cost you a measly million or two more per year (easily made up, of course, by some bit of sharp financial practice elsewhere), but I want to really tax the rich…I want a couple billion dollars from you.  Every year.  You do that, and I’ll agree to a general income tax hike.

Cross Posted:  Noonan for Nevada