Warren Buffett: Rich should pay more in taxes

Hang in there Conservatives, Repubs are coming and the Dems may actually have to keep their hands in their own pockets!

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Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue received favorable tailor made tax laws. He just created a new highway for his business. He was rich enough to get a 20 million dollar signature, collateral free, loan. He has a private office at the Ports Authority.

Looking at the mangled half released tax returns of Gov elect Deal, it seems he may be rich or he may be poor. If the guy really is dirt poor oh, well. If not Gov elect Deal got some great no-bid contracts.

By the way, where can I get some of those fancy, Tea Party approved, no-bid contracts?

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SPAS

I live ITP-My property taxes are high and my school district is $hit. But that’s irrelevant to our argument. I’m pretty sure there are both federal and state food stamps (WIC, whatever you call it) programs. And FICA taxes are federal. But, I don’t like federal or state gov…both do nothing but waste my tax dollars IMHO.

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T-Town@3:25 pm

Don’t really care what WARREN Buffett says, he’s out of my class. Now what JIMMY Buffett would have to say is something I would listen to.
——————————————————————

I agree and so for all the REAL JB fans
Another good Catholic boy gone bad LOL

——————————————————–
Jimmy Buffett We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About

I was supposed to have been a jesuit priest or a naval academy grad
That was the way that my parents perceived me
Those were the plans that they had
But I couldnt fit the part too dumb or too smart
Aint it funny how we all turned out
I guess we are the people our parents warned us about

You know I coulda worked the rigs when the money was big
Or hopped a freighter south to trinidad
And when they tried to draft me I earned a college degree
Buyin time til things were not so bad
But then I got a guitar found a job in a bar
Playin acid rock til I was numb
Tell me where are the flashbacks they all warned us would come

Chorus:
We are the people, they couldnt figure out
We are the people our parents warned us about

Hey hey, gardner mckay
Take us on the leaky tiki with you
Clear skies bound for shanghai
Sailing cross the ocean blue (do do do dooo)
So blue (do do do dooo oooh)
(do do do dooo)
(do do do dooo oooh)

Now I got quarters in my loafers tryin to fight inflation
When it only used to take a cent
Sometimes I wish I was back in my crashpad days
Fore I knew what cash flow meant

Seems everybodys joggin or heavy into health s**it
Don’t tell me that I ought to get rolfed
Cause I love cajun martinis and playin afternoon golf

Chorus:
We are the people there isn’t any doubt
We are the people they still can’t figure out
We are the people who love to sing twist and shout
Shake it up baby

We are the people our parents warned us about (do do do dooo)
Idn any doubt (do do do dooo oooh)
Hey hey hey (do do do dooo)
Gardner mckay (do do do dooo, gardner mckay)
(do do do dooo)
I wanna sail away today (do do do dooo oooh)
Isnt any doubt (do do do dooo)
They warned us about (do do do dooo oooh)
Hey hey hey (do do do dooo)
Cmon now gardner mckay (do do do dooo oooh)
I wanna sail away today

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I said FICA because I said medicaid in my original post, which is part of FICA, is it not? And FICA is redistribution because those who make more, pay more…and it goes to someone else (who in most cases, makes less). And those who make nothing, pay nothing.

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“Danny (recent college grad) x- clinton net worth is _____ pelosi net worth ______ gore net worth _____”

Big deal, what is your point? That the rich get richer with the help of Uncle Sam? Duh. Tell that to Barry.

In the mean time the Tea Party just campaigned hard against the kinds of things Deal and Sonny flagrantly get away with. Now all we get from the Tea Party are points of the finger, and “Clinton did it too.”

The last year we were told we needed to change our ways, now suddenly its “he did it too.”

How’s all that hopey, changey, stuff going Tea Party?

“HE DID IT FIRST”

The new Tea Party motto.

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Danny X

Did some tea partier steal your girlfriend or something? You sure hate them. You just need to realize all politicians are dirty and corrupt…not just republicans.

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Barry

I am not. When ALL the Republicans march in lockstep against this, that should tell you something.

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Steven Moore has a good piece in today WSJ, exposing the myth that higher taxes will pay down the debt. He has found, through careful mathematical analysis, that ALL tax increases resulted in at least a $1.17 increase in Federal spending per each additional dollar increase in taxes. I copy the article here, I believe I am permitted to do so, as I am a paying subscriber to the WSJ, both print and online, and this article is in the free section anyway. ” By STEPHEN MOORE And RICHARD VEDDER

The draft recommendations of the president’s commission on deficit reduction call for closing popular tax deductions, higher gas taxes and other revenue raisers to drive tax collections up to 21% of GDP from the historical norm of about 18.5%. Another plan, proposed last week by commission member and former Congressional Budget Office director Alice Rivlin, would impose a 6.5% national sales tax on consumers.

The claim here, echoed by endless purveyors of conventional wisdom in Washington, is that these added revenues—potentially a half-trillion dollars a year—will be used to reduce the $8 trillion to $10 trillion deficits in the coming decade. If history is any guide, however, that won’t happen. Instead, Congress will simply spend the money.

In the late 1980s, one of us, Richard Vedder, and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University co-authored a often-cited research paper for the congressional Joint Economic Committee (known as the $1.58 study) that found that every new dollar of new taxes led to more than one dollar of new spending by Congress. Subsequent revisions of the study over the next decade found similar results.

We’ve updated the research. Using standard statistical analyses that introduce variables to control for business-cycle fluctuations, wars and inflation, we found that over the entire post World War II era through 2009 each dollar of new tax revenue was associated with $1.17 of new spending. Politicians spend the money as fast as it comes in—and a little bit more.

We also looked at different time periods (e.g., 1947-2009 vs. 1959-2009), different financial data (fiscal year federal budget data, as well as calendar year National Income and Product Account data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis), different lag structures (e.g., relating taxes one year to spending change the following year to allow for the time it takes bureaucracies to spend money), different control variables, etc. The alternative models produce different estimates of the tax-spend relationship—between $1.05 and $1.81. But no matter how we configured the data and no matter what variables we examined, higher tax collections never resulted in less spending.

View Full Image

Getty Images
Alice Rivlin

This is exactly the opposite of what the tax-increase lobby in Washington is preaching today. For example, Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the president’s deficit reduction commission, suggested at a briefing several months ago that there will be $3 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increases. Sound familiar? Reagan used to complain that he waited his entire presidency for the $3 of spending cuts that Congress promised for every dollar of new taxes he agreed to in 1982. The cuts never came.

We’re constantly told by politicos that tax increases must be put “on the table” to get congressional Democrats—who’ve already approved close to $1 trillion of new spending in violation of their own budget rules over the last two years—to agree to make cuts in the unsustainable entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Our research indicates this is a sucker play. After the 1990 and 1993 tax increases, federal spending continued to rise. The 1990 tax increase deal was enacted specifically to avoid automatic spending sequestrations that would have been required under the then-prevailing Gramm-Rudman budget rules.

The only era in modern times that the budget has been in balance was in the late 1990s, when Republicans were in control of Congress. Taxes were not raised, and the capital gains tax rate was cut in 1997. The growth rate of federal spending was dramatically reduced from 1995-99, and the economy roared.

We suspect that voters intuitively understand this tax and spend connection, which is why there is such hostility to broad-based tax increases. “Polls consistently find that a majority of Americans believe any new taxes will be spent by the politicians,” pollster Scott Rasmussen told us recently in an interview.

The grand bargain so many in Washington yearn for—tax increases coupled with spending cuts—is a fool’s errand. Our research confirms what the late economist Milton Friedman said of Congress many years ago: “Politicians will always spend every penny of tax raised and whatever else they can get away with.”

Mr. Moore is senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Mr. Vedder is a professor of economics at Ohio University and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.”

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Who gives a Rats behind what Buffet says? I think all Lib/Socialist should pay more taxes. My opinion is worth as much as his. OBTW What idiot out there thinks the Obama administration is going to use tax money collected from the rich to pay down the deficit? Give me a damn break? This guy only knows one thing SPEND. Like a stolen credit card!

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More Republican Quotes…

“How much do you tip a Rent-a-Boy?” Focus on the Family Jewels founder Mr. Reker

“How about a massage to go along with the meth?” Rev Haggard

“How the heck was I elected.” Gov-elect Deal

“I am not a crook” Numerous Republicans, (most recently Deal, Perdue, Oxendine.)

“I can see the Hollywood sign from my penthouse window.” Sarah Palin on what its like to “go Hollywood.”

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“I am so glad I do not pay one red cent for this paper.”

You do know you’re on a website don’t you?

The 5th busiest Website in Georgia.

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…a good piece in today WSJ…

There’s your sign.

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No, No, No we love the 1990’s Clinton our friend make MFN, we trade junk to US then now you buy Everything from us and we buy USA LOL — TM

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That guy who’s running the TSA reminds me of Michael Brown.

I have to fly tomorrow afternoon. I hope I get picked for the naked scan thing. I’m gonna make ‘em fondle my junk just to create a messpool.

Opt-Out !!

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And I think opinion columnists should live in squalor amongst the rats and other trash.

The same could be said of failed county politicians as well.

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Who the $&%* is he to say what other people should pay? If he wants to pay more taxes than legally required, he has every right to do so. If I were he, I would make better use of my money by contributing to charities and donating to universities and medical research foundations; or by investing in small businesses that could create more jobs. But it’s totally up to him what he wants to do with his own money. What a concept…

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In 1980:
* the top 1% consisted of about 932,000 taxpayers who had AGI greater than $80,580
* they had a total of $138B in AGI, which was 8.4% of overall AGI
* they paid a total of $47B in taxes, which was 19.05% of the overall taxes
* their average effective tax rate was 34.47%
* per taxpayer, average revenue was $50,429

In 2006:
* the top 1% consisted of 1,357,192 taxpayers who had AGI greater than $388,806
* they had a total of $1,792B in AGI, which was 22.06% of overall AGI
* they paid a total of $408B in taxes, which was 39.89% of overall taxes
* their average effective tax rate was 22.79%
* per taxpayer, average revenue was $300,663

Even though the effective rate went down markedly, the amount of tax collected per taxpayer went up even more markedly, rising by a factor nearly six. And the share of taxes collected from this group more than doubled, although their share of income also went up 2.5x.

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One last post before I head off…

Two points. First, the Democrats were more than willing to point out that extending the tax cuts for “the rich” would “cost” $700B over 10 years. What they neglected to tell the electorate was that extending the tax cuts for everyone else, which they seemed perfectly willing to do, would “cost” more then $3T over the same time period. So what they were saying is “it’s ok to ’spend’ $3T, but not $3.7T” Glad to know they have a line on what constitutes too much spending.

Second, we do not have nor have we ever had a revenue shortage. What we have is a spending problem. This is why I used the term “cost” and “spend” relating to tax revenues. Not collecting taxes is *not* spending, no matter how much Democrats want to treat them as equivalent. For several years under Bush’s tax rates, the government brought in record revenues, over $2T every year after the 2003 tax cuts excepting $1.88T in 2004, and over $2.5T in 2006 and 2007, but we *still* had deficits (and yes some of that was due to the ill-conceived war in Iraq, which in itself was strongly supported by Democrats in Congress when it was authorized).

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Sin-thee: I saw this discussed this morning. Learned that never since WWI has the money from any tax increase been used to pay down our debt. On average, for any dollar collected in increased revenue, the Govt spends $1.13. So, what is the point of giving more to those spenders.

BTW, you and Buffett are both rich. When you guys fill out your 1040, it has a block to show how much you owe the IRS. There is no limit to how much you put in above the amount owed. So, just add $50,000 to your total and you will sleep better at night. Congress can use that to study why pigs stink.

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verbotten

November 22nd, 2010
9:27 pm

I’ve made your first point myself, several times. But in your second you fail to point out that revenue in 2001 and 2002 were below 2000, creating a revenue shortage. Congress knew the deficit would explode due to the lower rates, hence the 10 year expiration requirement. Also since deficit spending creates economic growth and tax revenue, what really caused the increases? If Bush had reduced spending as well, we’d have a better idea.

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I loved what Walter Williams states about gov’t spending. Cap it at 10% of GDP! If 10% is good enough for the Baptist Church, then it ought to be good enough for the federal government. Our gov’t spending is way out of control!

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I greatly admire Warren Buffett and think he’s a very ethical and brilliant business owner and investor. Frankly, I think he’s a very decent human being. What he advises on taxes shouldn’t just be dismissed by conservatives. Perhaps the rich should pay more than they are. That being said, Warren Buffet intends to leave most of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I think that means that tens of billions of dollars will escape taxation. As well, the majority of these tens of billions of dollars may actually end up being spent overseas as that’s what Bill Gates considers his mission. Bill Gates in the 1980s and 1990s was man who created a lot of wealth for the United States. In the time since, Bill Gates has been one of leading practitioners of replacing hundreds of thousands if not millions of American technology workers with cheap workers from mostly India. The practice of doing that is possibly a primary reason as to why the U.S. economy has fallen as far as it has.

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More Kipling — “On Vacation”

“The Gods of the Copybook Headings” is a poem published by Rudyard Kipling in 1919. The central message of the poem is that basic and unvarying aspects of human nature will always re-emerge in every society.

The copybook headings to which the title refers were proverbs or maxims printed at the top of 19th century British schoolboys’ notebook pages. The students had to write them by hand repeatedly down the page.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

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……Pulitzer-prize winning CT. That is almost as good as Nobel-prize winning Barack Obama…….

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