Watch What Warren Buffett Does, Not What He Says
4:16 PM, NOV 26, 2012
BY ADAM J. WHITE
Warren Buffett is by now no stranger to the national debate over federal tax policy. In 2009, he penned a New York Times op-ed calling for “truly major changes in both taxes and outlays.” Two years later, he returned to the Times with a widely publicized call for large tax increases on the “super-rich,” noting that his own effective federal tax rate (17 percent) was far less than his employees’ rates (ranging from 33 to 41 percent). President Obama liked the idea so much, he called for Congress to pass “the Buffett Rule” in his 2012 state of the union address.
Given that long, well-publicized history, there isn’t much news to be found in Buffett’s latest Times op-ed this morning, calling once again for a minimum tax on millionaires. Except that Buffett opens this one with a rifle shot at Grover Norquist specifically, and supply-side economics generally:
Suppose that an investor you admire and trust comes to you with an investment idea. “This is a good one,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m in it, and I think you should be, too.”
Would your reply possibly be this? “Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you’re saying we’re going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent.” Only in Grover Norquist’s imagination does such a response exist.
https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/watch-what-warren-buffett-does-not-what-he-says_664022.html
Warren Buffett has aranged his entire affairs to minimize the amount of income tax he pays. Additionally he has almost certainly planned on escaping all federal estate tax. He is a championship hypocrite. Immensly qualified for a run at political office.