Buffet owes a billion in back taxes yet the new proposal is named after him?

[Trajan]

The man plays by the rules of the game.

He recognizes and mentioned that the rules that are serving him so well are not also serving this nation so well.

And for that, some of you hate the guy?

WEll, that shouldn't surprise me given that LOVING TO HATE is pretty much what motivates so many of you folks.

I don't hate the guy, but I don't know if he plays by the rules of the game.

He invested 5 billion dollars in goldman sachs before TARP, and when TARP looked like it didn't have enough support to pass, he publicly put the pressure on the politicians to pass the bill, saying he would not have made the personal investment unless he knew the government was going to do the right thing.

Both the Goldman Sachs 5 billion investment, and the 5 billion Bank of America investment....he was able to get the shares at a discount and get significant warrant coverage free....Its not illegal, but it's an example of how, because he's wealthy he takes advantage of special treatment, and that speaks to the hypocrisy of his view on taxes.

I don't care about all stories the media writes about, how he eats hamburgers and lives in a log cabin...the guy complains he's not being taxed as much as his secretary, but has a army of tax lawyers that look for every loophole in the book to save him from paying.

Again, why does it matter more what Warren Buffet thinks, as opposed to any other citizen??

Good question.

I suppose the fact that he is one of the richest citizens of all, and the fact that he notes that he is paying taxes at a rate lower than people who make much much MUCH less than him in why some of us THINK that what he says needs to be addressed.

That's my theory, do you have an alternate explaination for why we're talking about him?

false dichotomy.
what he pays and how this is peddled is slight of hand, it doesn't matter, BECAUSE there is no comparison to be made.



now, IF he took his reward, award or compensation as income ala a SALARY, then he would pay the rate his secretary pays, and if he took to many deductions as to great a cost he would get smeared by AMT, (unless congress kills it again this year in which case obama went along for 2 years and should have squat to say about it, so its a wash).

Look, you and I both know why he doesn't take a salary...are we kids or what? he wants as much as that money for himself ( OR his foundation) as possible... ..... and good for him.

BUT he should just stfu and leave it alone, you and I and the country do not need his hypocritical, nonsensical bullshit. He makes himself and obama look like asses. IF we had a media in this country, this kookiness would be outed on every network and paper and killed like the dissembling class warfare trash it is.