White House Says Warren Buffett To Get Presidential Medal Of Freedom -- On The Same Day He Praises Bailouts In NYT

The White House announced that Warren Buffett will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, reports Reuters. The announcement, which had likely been planned for weeks, comes on the same day that the New York Times published a glowing op-ed by Buffett, in which the legendary investor referred to himself as Uncle Sam's "grateful nephew" and praised the government's rescue of the financial system.

Buffett, no fan of dynastic wealth, has pledged much of his fortune to charity. He will join Henry Ford II, Alan Greenspan, management legend Peter Drucker, Estee Lauder and Walt Disney among business titans who've received the award.

In his op-ed today, Buffett named Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, ex-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, current Treasury head Tim Geithner and FDIC chief Sheila Bair among those responsible for saving America's economy. And, though he notes he did not vote for him, Buffett also praises George W. Bush. Here's Buffett:

"When the crisis struck, I felt you would understand the role you had to play. But you've never been known for speed, and in a meltdown minutes matter. I worried whether the barrage of shattering surprises would disorient you. You would have to improvise solutions on the run, stretch legal boundaries and avoid slowdowns, like Congressional hearings and studies. You would also need to get turf-conscious departments to work together in mounting your counterattack. The challenge was huge, and many people thought you were not up to it.

Well, Uncle Sam, you delivered."

But Buffett was never a disinterested observer in the bailout. As Rolfe Winkler pointed out last year, Buffett not only traded on the bailout, landing an investment in Goldman Sachs that would earn him about $1.3 million per day, but his firm's portfolio had vast holdings in more than a few companies that received government assistance, including Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

Comments

[NAMI]

05:58 PM on 11/21/2010

We are all in this together.....................No one is Perfect...
We cannot succeed by hating all the rich people..............Remember that NADER has a title which predicted this.
i forget exactly what it is.
I AM VERY HAPPY

[NAMI]

04:32 PM on 11/21/2010

Mr Buffett actually has done a great service to America by saying that Trickle down Economics has failed..........so he deserves to receive this HONOR
ALSO, he is being patriotic by saying TAX US.................that is what VP Biden said during the Campaign.
So , I hope OBAMA does not WASTE this Opportunity and does NOT EXTEND Bush tax cuts for the Wealthy.............BECAUSE WE SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD it ANYMORE.!!!!

[greyhound2]

11:06 AM on 11/19/2010

Not only did the bail-outs save his bacon, he got a medal on top of it too!

[rhymney]

07:32 PM on 11/18/2010

I'm happy for Mr. Buffett.

[forestnfama]

04:19 AM on 11/18/2010

The difference between now and the past is.......it use to be the poor could come to this country and realize the American dream by working......... Now, the rich come here to become richer......because if you are rich enough failure no longer means you lose money and in fact is the opposite..... The rich are enrich by speculation or failure...... The system is 100% percent rigged by the rich and their minion politicians where the economic model is morphing over to that of Mexico.

[forestnfama]

04:11 AM on 11/18/2010

A million dollars a day in profit.......I would be praising the bail out too....... mean while on main street, "Sorry no stinking job here"

[giatny]

02:08 AM on 11/18/2010

He wisely didn't praise Obama for his handling of the 2nd half of TARP.

[themodernleader]

12:37 AM on 11/18/2010

   Have you pondered the fact that Buffett would have bowed out in disgrace if the government had not bailed him and his brilliant friends out of toxic positions.  Now Obama presents a once distinguished honor on to an inside trader with privileged information making him wealthy.  Ordinary Americans go broke and there is no government salvation.  Only food stamps and the public dole, both that have a termination date.  I keep dreaming I have been transported to a banana republic, but I awaken to the fact that the banana republic is us. We pretend to be free, self governing and independent and behave in the inverse. 

[Disdain]

10:11 AM on 11/19/2010

The interest of the average individual is always last on politicians priority list, regardless of party affiliation. Unless you can afford millions of dollars in lobbying, you must learn to settle with whatever crumbs they throw at you to keep you in line and secure your vote.

[NAMI]

04:40 PM on 11/21/2010

THOSE who have the GOLD .............RULE...............unless the others in a Democracy learn to use their only TOOL to balance things a bit.
that tool is the .................???

GUESS

[InfinteShibumi]

11:35 PM on 11/17/2010

AWKWARD.

[cloudminder]

11:14 PM on 11/17/2010

geez, robert gibbs can't catch a break

[InfinteShibumi]

11:35 PM on 11/17/2010

So true...

[jcaunter]

10:02 PM on 11/17/2010

How is this bad timing? Obama and the rest of the elite kleptocrats are on record numerous times expressing their love for "too big to fail" bank bailouts. At least Obama isn't being two-faced about it, like is in most other things.

[hatedoll]

09:57 PM on 11/17/2010

Oh good grief. You have to take the good and the bad with Warren Buffet.

Anyone bashing Buffet as greedy has obviously never heard of this nifty thing called "The Giving Pledge"

You know, the one he and Bill Gates heads up where Billionaires promise to give a majority of their wealth to philanthropy?

http://givingpledge.org/

Should look it up sometime.

I'll forgive him this one mistake while so many others are benefiting from him.

[hatedoll]

10:02 PM on 11/17/2010

And yes I realize it was mentioned in the article, but, this is reiteration for anyone who may have skipped over that part.

[Majestry]

11:06 PM on 11/17/2010

Because all the people who got bailed out and made a fortune while the rest of us are drowning are just as generous...

[leftLibertarian]

08:41 PM on 11/17/2010

What Uncle Warren is saying that bailouts are only for corrupt and poorly run Wall Street financial firms. And all the rest of you regular folks have to file bankruptcy, for that is how the 'free market' works.

[eilish]

08:01 PM on 11/17/2010

How very nice. Now if Warren could get his billionaires' club together, maybe they could fund a job stimulus program for the middle class-soon to be lower- class of America, since the government is failing so abysmally with it.

[leftLibertarian]

08:17 PM on 11/17/2010

Big mommy government only helps those who bribe elected officials.

[sueinmn]

07:59 PM on 11/17/2010

And same day Soro says to pull Obamas funding!

[InfinteShibumi]

11:36 PM on 11/17/2010

I think it was a threat meant to prod the president into standing his ground.