Author Topic: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite  (Read 8833 times)

bears

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #50 on: September 20, 2011, 11:35:16 AM »
Buffett’s math is a bit off
NEW YORK POST ^ | September 20, 2011 | S.A. MILLER




WASHINGTON -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett isn’t as undertaxed as he and President Obama seem to think.

***

Buffett actually was taxed twice on his investment income.

First, Buffett had to make the money he invested. Those earnings were taxed as corporate income, at about a 35-percent rate.

Then, Uncle Sam took another cut when Buffett invested the money and earned a profit. That’s when Buffett paid the 15 percent capital-gains tax rate.

All told, after combining corporate taxes and capital gains taxes, Buffett forked over about 45 percent of his earnings.


(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


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let's put our country's tax policy in the hands of someone who doesn't know even look at his own tax returns and has no idea what is on them.  Again. Just because he's a brilliant man who makes a lot of money does not mean he knows the first thing about tax policy.

dantelis

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #51 on: September 21, 2011, 10:00:43 AM »
Republicans Cry "Class Warfare" All the Way to the Bank

It's been a tough week for Republicans, and they are crying. President Obama has decided to get tough and go after millionaires, nailing them to the financial cross by having them pay taxes at the rate that everyone else has to. And what exactly are the Republicans crying? "Class Warfare!" The term is being wailed from every Sunday morning television station to every press conference. Stick a microphone in front of a Republican and you'll hear the term accompanied by the tears of outrage that job creation will come to a halt under the grinding oppression of over taxation.

For anyone following political rhetoric, this cry from Republicans is nothing new. George Herbert Walker Bush used it in 1990 when he spoke at the Cowboy Hall of Fame, earning his spurs as a defender of the working-class man when he decried what he called this "class warfare garbage" being slung at high noon by them darned, dandified Democrats. Coincidentally, he was speaking about a stalled budget in which conservatives wouldn't raise taxes and progressives wanted to preserve social programs.

It is ironic that Republicans, who always deny that class exists in the US ("We're all middle-class, right?), should cry "class warfare" in every election. If you don't believe in class -- how could there be class warfare?

More - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lennard-davis/republicans-cry-class-war_b_968757.html

kcballer

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #52 on: September 21, 2011, 10:08:14 AM »
Buffets investment record puts Schiff to shame.
Abandon every hope...

Soul Crusher

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #53 on: September 21, 2011, 10:38:39 AM »
Buffett, the Blowhard
www.Townhall.com ^ | September 21, 2011 | Jeff Carter




Much is being made of Warren Buffett and the Obama “Buffett Tax” proposal. Buffett said he pays his taxes at a lower marginal rate than his secretary. Roughly half. His secretary supposedly pays 33%, and Warren pays close to 18%.

That means that Mr. Buffett’s secretary makes at least $174,400, and no more than $379,150. I don’t want to get bogged down in all that; and if I were Buffett’s secretary I suppose I would rather be paid in stock like Ray Kroc did for his secretary. The secretary would be money ahead, and when they soldthe stock she'd pay only long term capital gains of 15%, just like her boss.

I think though now is a good time to have a philosophical debate about capital and taxes.

What is a tax after all? It’s what we voluntarily pay the government. If a majority of us simply stopped paying taxes, or avoided most of them like they do in Europe, our government would go broke faster. But, Americans assume they have a legal contract with the government to “provide for the general welfare”, so most of us don’t mind paying some taxes. Truth be told, 47% of Americans paid no income tax last year except what was deducted from their paycheck. Many of them got that back when they filed a tax return. From the citizens perspective, a tax is an amount of income they are willing to part with to keep a civilized society.

On the other hand, what is government’s perspective on taxes? REVENUE. Plain and simple. It’s as folksy as I can put it since we are talking about a Buffett tax.


The government needs revenue to operate. Without it, it goes bankrupt and defaults.

Economically, no matter what, the nature of the firm or the nature of government is to try and expand. In the private sector a firm has incentive to expand because of profits. The government's incentive to expand isn’t based on profit at all. It’s based on power. The more it can expand, the more power it has. The more power government has, the less freedom individuals have. Government always will want more revenue.

There are better ways to give the government what it wants, more revenue, and give the people what they want, more freedom and less tax burden.

Unfortunately we have followed an economic path of trying to stimulate demand. Stimulating demand is stupid. It’s a money loser. Instead, what you have to do is let private industry create supply. Then demand will be created to access that supply.

Let me give you and example. Suppose an individual owns a small business. They file taxes at the individual rate, because it’s cheaper for them to operate their business as an individual rather than incorporate and file as a corporation. Today assume that the business files returns at 35%, same as the corporate rate.

What would the business do if the government eliminated all deductions and dropped the marginal rate to 15%?

What would happen to revenue? Changing the marginal rate will change the supply line for the small business. This will have an effect on demand, theoretically increasing it.

If you say that the company will pay less in taxes, you are incorrect. They will pay less in taxes based on their past performance. Even if you redid the accounting to reflect the changes, the company would still pay less. But, they were making business decisions based on the old tax law, not the new one. Change the tax laws you change the internal cost/benefit decisions that companies make. If they expand enough, they will wind up paying more dollars in taxes than they did previously, even though they do it at a lower rate. The key is they will be keeping more of their total income.

By lowering the marginal tax rate, companies will have incentive to expand. When they expand, they become more productive. More production equals higher revenues, and will more than make up for the drop in marginal rates.


At the same time that we lower rates, we need to trim the size of government. In the short run, the government will receive some windfall profits from lower marginal rates and from the economic boomlet that follows. However, that cannot go on forever.

The size and scope of government must be cut at the same time that marginal rates are cut. That means more freedom for the constituents, and returns government to its rightful place as simply a background manager of a civil society-not a behemoth that tries to force society where it wants society to go.

Raising rates is a disincentive to invest. Lowering rates is incentive to expand. It’s as simple as that.


Soul Crusher

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #54 on: September 21, 2011, 10:53:16 AM »
Warren Buffett to host fundraiser for Obama in Chicago

President Barack Obama presents Warren Buffett with the 2010 Medal of Freedom in February. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT)
Reuters
 
11:29 a.m. CDT, September 21, 2011




http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-warrent-buffett-to-host-fundraiser-for-obama-in-chicago-20110921,0,2294.story


Billionaire U.S. investor Warren Buffett will help raise money for President Barack Obama's re-election effort at a $35,800-a-ticket fundraiser next month in Chicago, an Obama campaign official said on Wednesday.

Buffett will attend the Oct. 27 event at a private home on Chicago's North Shore that is expected to include major donors to Obama's 2008 presidential run. The Democratic president, who is not expected to attend, is running for re-election in 2012.

Buffett, the legendary chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has landed in the center of a growing political battle over Obama's proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy by inspiring the so-called "Buffett Rule."

Buffett wrote a column for The New York Times in August saying rich people like him often pay less in taxes than those who work for them because of loopholes in the tax code, and can afford to pay more.

Obama cited Buffett on Monday in proposing a minimum tax rate for people earning more than $1 million a year. Republicans have condemned the plan as class warfare.

Soul Crusher

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #55 on: September 22, 2011, 09:03:27 AM »
A Lousy Way to Soak the Rich: Obama Proposes Capital Gains Rate Hike to 25%, 28%, or 39.6%
ATR ^ | 2011-09-19 | Ryan Ellis

Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:00:16 PM by 92nina

President Obama today called on raising the capital gains tax rate: “…Explain why somebody who’s making $50 million a year in the financial markets should be paying 15 percent on their taxes, when a teacher making $50,000 a year is paying more than that — paying a higher rate.”


25% capital gains tax rate? Under one interpretation, President Obama is calling for the marginal tax rate on capital gains to be the same as the marginal tax rate on someone earning $50,000 per year. This would imply a 25% capital gains tax


28% capital gains tax rate? According to theladders.com, a Fortune 500 CEO’s executive assistant commands a starting salary of about $100,000. The marginal tax rate on this salary level is 28%. So, President Obama might be calling for the capital gains tax rate to get back to its pre-1997 level of 28%


39.6% capital gains tax rate? President Obama laid out the principal that capital gains should not be taxed any lower than any other tax rate. If Warren Buffett’s secretary gets a big raise that puts her in a higher tax bracket, President Obama and Mr. Buffett would have the same complaint. If President Obama means that he wants to tax capital gains as ordinary income (as seems most likely), he would have to raise the rate all the way to 39.6 percent, the level it will be in 2013 and which he has said is the best top rate.


President Obama has already raised the capital gains tax rate. President Obama has endorsed a 20% capital gains marginal rate in his budget. In addition, Obamacare contains a 3.8% “surtax” on capital gains and other investments starting in 2014...


Read more: http://www.atr.org/lousy-way-soak-rich-obama-proposes-a6462#ixzz1YhH1LDWE


(Excerpt) Read more at atr.org ...


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Disgusting!!!!!   

rot in hell obama!   

Soul Crusher

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #56 on: September 22, 2011, 09:24:21 AM »
Buffett to headline blockbuster Obama Chicago fundraiser
Chicago Business ^ | Steven R. Strahler




Buffett to headline blockbuster Obama Chicago fundraiser

By: Steven R. Strahler September 21, 2011

(Crain's) — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is coming to Chicago to help raise money for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign at a $35,800-per-ticket fundraiser next month at the North Shore home of investment banker Byron Trott, according to a draft invitation.

The Oct. 27 event will be co-hosted by James Crown, Penny Pritzker, John Rogers Jr. and other major local donors who fueled Mr. Obama's first presidential campaign and are lining up to back him again. Mr. Obama is not expected to attend, according to Mr. Rogers, chairman of Ariel Investments LLC. Neither the Obama campaign nor Mr. Trott's spokeswoman had any immediate comment.

Mr. Buffett is doing the same honors for the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee later this month in New York, where he is the draw for a reception and dinner with tickets ranging from $10,000 to $35,800. Each event is expected to be moderated by Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago law professor and former chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration.


(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobusiness.com ...


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whork25

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #57 on: September 23, 2011, 05:30:14 AM »
Whats the problem? If he wants to pay more taxes its up to him its his money

Butterbean

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #58 on: September 23, 2011, 07:05:58 AM »
Whats the problem? If he wants to pay more taxes its up to him its his money

 ???  Wondering if you did read this thread?

Also, for the rest of the "rich" does your above statement still apply in that it's their money?
R

whork25

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #59 on: September 23, 2011, 07:10:00 AM »
???  Wondering if you did read this thread?

Also, for the rest of the "rich" does your above statement still apply in that it's their money?

Of course its their money who else should it belong to?

Soul Crusher

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #60 on: September 23, 2011, 07:10:59 AM »
Of course its their money who else should it belong to?

According to Elizaberth Warren - everyone in our collectivist commune.

whork25

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #61 on: September 23, 2011, 07:14:41 AM »
We could argue back and forth the fairness in some people having so much and others so little

But to the answer regarding who's money it is you cant argue that it belongs to the people who earned/made them

wild willie

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #62 on: September 24, 2011, 03:56:02 PM »
Buffett lives in a modest home in Omaha.....but his house in California is another story.

I admire the man big time.....but he is tighter than 3 coats of paint.

He doesn't lease or even own a plane.....he uses his good friend Walter Scott's plane.

He is very good at what he does.....maybe the best.....but he is a bit of a hypocrite.

tonymctones

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #63 on: September 25, 2011, 09:23:05 AM »
Buffett lives in a modest home in Omaha.....but his house in California is another story.

I admire the man big time.....but he is tighter than 3 coats of paint.

He doesn't lease or even own a plane.....he uses his good friend Walter Scott's plane.

He is very good at what he does.....maybe the best.....but he is a bit of a hypocrite.
agreed on all things except that "he is a bit of a hypocrite", he is a big hypocrite

Soul Crusher

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #64 on: September 25, 2011, 08:54:35 PM »
Mayor Bloomberg slams Warren Buffett's tax claims; 'The Buffett thing is just theatrics'
DAILY NEWS ^ | September 25th 2011 | Reuven Blau
Posted on September 25, 2011 11:41:53 PM EDT by george76

Mayor Bloomberg Sunday slammed billionaire investor Warren Buffett's call for higher taxes on the super-rich, dismissing it as political theater.

"The Buffett thing is just theatrics," Hizzoner said speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press."

In August, Buffett - known as "The Oracle from Omaha" - said he forked over a little less than $7 million in taxes last year, which added up to roughly 17% of his income.

That percentage was lower than the secretaries in his office, he pointed out.

Bloomberg said Buffett's use of the figures was a bit of a smoke and mirrors game.

"If Warren Buffett made his money from ordinary income rather than capital gains his tax rate would be a lot higher than his secretaries. And in fact a very small percentage of people in this country pay a big chunk of the taxes," the billionaire mayor argued.

A following Associated Press review revealed that millionaires on average pay 29.1% of their income in taxes.

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...

Soul Crusher

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #65 on: September 26, 2011, 03:10:58 PM »
'Buffett Tax' Based On Fallacy That Rich Don't Pay Fair Share
IBD Editorial ^ | September 26, 2011 | RALPH R. REILAND




'Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires," repeatedly proclaims President Obama, arguing for his proposed $1.5 trillion tax increase over the next 10 years. "That's pretty straightforward. It's hard to argue against that."

In fact, Mr. Obama's statement is anything but straightforward and not hard to argue against.

Seeking to reverse his declining poll numbers, especially among his increasingly disillusioned base, Obama is attempting to give the impression that America's millionaires and billionaires are paying lower taxes than their secretaries.

IRS data for 2008, however, the latest year for which the numbers are available, show that those who earned more than $1 million in adjusted gross income paid an average federal income tax rate of 23.3%.

For those earning $100,000 to $200,000 in 2008, the average federal income tax rate paid was just about half as much, 12.7%.

For those with adjusted gross incomes from $30,000 to $50,000 — a millionaire's secretary, for instance — the average federal income tax rate paid was 7.2%, less than a third of the rate paid by those earning $1 million and over.

Obama is echoing a recent column in the New York Times by billionaire Warren Buffett in which wrote that the federal income tax rate he paid was lower than the rate paid by employees in his office.


(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...

Soul Crusher

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dario73

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #67 on: August 26, 2014, 07:22:10 AM »
http://online.wsj.com/articles/warren-buffett-to-help-finance-burger-kings-takeover-of-tim-hortons-1409012196



unreal but typical for buffett

HEHEHEEH!

Cue (my bad) the liberal dolts to respond with this comment: "Corporations are not people!"

RRKore

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #68 on: August 26, 2014, 07:32:54 AM »
HEHEHEEH!

Que the liberal dolts to respond with this comment: "Corporations are not people!"

Yo, ESL-dude, it's "cue".   No such thing as "que", I don't think.

loco

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #69 on: August 26, 2014, 07:35:27 AM »
Que pasa?

dario73

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #70 on: August 27, 2014, 08:16:54 AM »
YoHey, ESL dude, it's "cue".   There is no such thing as "que", I don't thinkbelieve.
Fixed.

You are correct. You never think.

Option D

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #71 on: August 27, 2014, 08:20:49 AM »
I feel for you, bro.

Not saying that to be mean, either.

Happens to everyone. Some more than others, but it happens to everyone.

lol

RRKore

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #72 on: August 27, 2014, 08:23:42 AM »
Fixed.

You are correct. You never think.

Sometimes I don't, lol. 

No worries, though.  At least you didn't write "queue". 

(And, honestly, for being a 2nd language, your English is super good.)

bears

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #73 on: August 27, 2014, 08:45:52 AM »
the whole Warren Buffett interview was very simple.  it's someone trying to paint the picture that a very odd tax return is the norm all the while knowing that the reader for whom the author is writing doesn't understand tax.  that's why so many authors throw the term "tax loophole" around without actually knowing what it means.  it's pandering to a base who patronizes the author for the sole purpose of gathering ammunition, not gathering information for the purpose of making an informed decision.  that's US politics in a nutshell.  very sad.  very disturbing.

2Thick

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Re: Warren Buffet - Hypocrite
« Reply #74 on: August 27, 2014, 04:05:23 PM »
the problem is you're flat out wrong that the super rich pay less than their secretaries.  The super rich pay a larger majority of their tax on investment income.  This IS taxed at a lower rate.  However the majority of investment income is coming in the form of capital gains and dividends.  These dividends are taxed once at the corporate level (35%), and then taxed again at the shareholder level (15%).  This is the part of tax that Mr. Buffett doesn't understand.  Just because he's super rich doesn't mean he knows anything about taxes.  He doesn't prepare his own tax returns you guys.  Now some writer with an agenda is misleading you to believe something that is absolutely not true and now you are diseminating this bullshit information to more people on this board.  and I don't expect the average person to understand our tax code.  But let's leave articles like this to CPA's or IRS agents.  Not young liberal writers who don't know their ass from the IRC.  like i said before.  disgusting.

Buffett understands taxes perfectly - he's just being disingenuous. He's the chairman and CEO of one of the world's largest and most profitable companies, and he's arguably the best investor ever. 20% over a half a century with minimal volatility, Ivy League Econ / Finance Masters Degree, the whole nine yards.

That guy is an incredible genius - he knows more about money, finance, investing, and even taxes than just about anyone, and can compute compound interest in his head. He claims to do his own taxes, which may or may not actually be true. But he knows what he's saying and what he actually can do.
A