Warren Buffett: I 'Should Be Paying A Lot More In Taxes'

WASHINGTON -- Billionaire Warren Buffett rebutted claims that the Obama administration is unjustly hurting business orders with high taxes by saying that in fact, the wealthy have never had it so good.

"I think that people at the high end, people like myself, should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it," he told ABC's Christiane Amanpour in a clip played on "This Week" on Sunday.

When Amanpour pointed to critics' claims that the very wealthy need tax cuts to spur business and capitalism, Buffett replied, "The rich are always going to say that, you know, 'Just give us more money, and we'll go out and spend more, and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you.' But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on."

WATCH:

On Tuesday, Buffett wrote a New York Times op-ed in the form of a letter to "Uncle Sam," thanking him for saving the U.S. economy:

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. People will second-guess your specific decisions; you can always count on that. But just as there is a fog of war, there is a fog of panic -- and, overall, your actions were remarkably effective.

Buffett isn't the only billionaire who has argued for higher taxes. Both Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his father, Bill Gates, Sr., recently came out in support of a Washington state measure to "create a 5 percent tax rate on annual income exceeding $200,000 for individuals and $400,000 for couples, and a 9 percent tax rate on income that tops $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples."

Buffett has spoken out in the past about taxes for the wealthy, telling the Senate Finance Committee in 2007 that the estate tax should not be repealed. "I think we need to...take a little more out of the hides of guys like me," Buffett testified.

Comments

[4 All Americans]

08:08 PM on 12/29/2010

One reason for this is because most of the very rich in America get most of their income from investment­s in the form of unearned income. Unearned income is taxed at much lower rates than is earned income one gets for working for a living.

The book, "Return to Prosperity­­" by Laffer and Moore published this year gives a great argument for a Flat Tax and lays out a plan to ensure that big business and the rich pay their fair share of taxes.

[Michele Allison]

10:29 AM on 12/21/2010

I understand the comments that have been posted. However, Buffett, Gates, Clinton and those that truly believe that the taxes need to be paid should go before a hearing and get things put on the right track. Then this issue would get turned around. Maybe! Our voices, evidently, are not powerful enough. Yes, they can pay more but why should just a couple pay their fair share when the real core of the tax bill that is not being collected is in the billions? The biggest problem, as I see it, is every time these important issues come up...something else is attached to it and paralyzes the process. One issue at a time for issues of this magnitude. Also, the reinstatement of the tax cuts should be applied specifically to those of the financial status of the Buffett's. Or, more specifically, the friends of the Bush Administration. Also, large corporations that have been realizing tax breaks, etc. should have real regulations attached to the money that they receive that would benefit our own economy. Happy Holidays everyone.

[dkrypt]

09:50 AM on 12/21/2010

Nothing is stopping him from paying more in taxes except his own free will. The Treasury will accept intentional overpayment and monies specifically directed towards reducing the national debt. So go ahead Warren, put your money where your mouth is.

[Cliff Friedel]

05:36 PM on 12/15/2010

He could just pay more without being asked to or not take deductions if he really wanted to pay more. Not like the IRS will stop you. In fact, there is a place on their web site where you can do just that. Also, if he is so worried about "his part", why doesn't he just sell some of his stock and pay cap gains. If he sold all of the $60 billion or so he owns, he would pay the government $9 billion. If he waits until the Politboro, I mean Congress, raises cap gains, he can then pay $16.5 billion (assuming they go to 28% like Obama wants). It's easy to say "I want to pay more", but until they are forced to do it via legislation, they won't.

I am really tired of this debate. If they want to solve the tax issue, make it a flat rate on income, without deductions, that everyone pays. Then, eliminate most of the IRS and the accounting world. Once you pay that, whatever you do with your money after that is your business. No double taxation via estate tax, no second hit via cap gains, no import fee for funds that are procured in other places. If people worry about the poor paying taxes, exempt them at a rate that is, let's say, 50% of the median income for a state or an area (ie: if the median income for MS is $40,000, the cutoff would be $20,000). Simple

[aacme]

09:02 PM on 12/12/2010

Why does HP remove comments that refer to Libertarianism as based on the writings of a sociopathic wacko whose hero was a serial killer? Is it because you don't think it's true or because you do?

[linton]

10:00 AM on 12/09/2010

Please sir, Go ahead and pay more if you want to. Do not use the standard and hopefully the other rich ones will follow your lead.

[harrishill]

01:11 PM on 12/02/2010

I am commenting on my son-in-law,s income, in southern California. He just barely meets the over 200,000. income. He has five children. The cost of college and living expenses for them is very high now. The cost of his two younger children's pursuit of dance is very high. The cost of living here, is very high. Because he is taxed so high, it is a constant struggle. He isn't a big spender, yet he is finding it difficult to manage. Please reconsider the plan to tax over 200,000. as if they were rich!!!
Eyes oppen,
in California

[Blake Amanda DiCioccio]

05:01 PM on 12/02/2010

Sorry, I can't take pity on your son... if it's such a struggle for him at $200K, imagine what it's like for my family in the SF Bay Area on $80K. Maybe it's time for his college-age kids to pay for half their education and to cut down on the high cost of children's dance by doing either less dance or have them dance at a community center studio.

[immasupermommy]

10:29 AM on 12/05/2010

I can't agree more. The rich always think they have it rough. Its called a budget. I support my husband (disabled) and 2 kids off of about 25k a year. The 80k you make a year is rich to me. I couldn't agree with you more Blake. My kids don't take dance, I likely won't be able to send them to college either, they will have to pay for it themselves. You kno what tho, it will make them appreciate their mother a bit more and the good life they do have. My kids are allowed 1 extra curricular activity which I can afford. Those of us who make minimum wage or just over have learned to budget our money. No I don't have the best of everything, but I don't have to in order to be happy. harrishill your son constantly struggles because he's handing his kids the world on a silver platter. There is nothing wrong with making them (HIS KIDS) work for something they enjoy! At 14 I got a JOB so I could buy an instrument to be in the band b/c my parents couldn't afford it. That is what kids do who truly want something their parents can't afford. There is nothing wrong with teaching your kids to work hard for something they want. NEEDS are a whole other matter.

[tjdumas]

10:18 AM on 12/21/2010

R U SERIOUS!!!!! AMAZING I MEAN COME ON ALREADY!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

[hornedcog]

04:48 PM on 11/28/2010

He seems sincere. Why doesn't he actually start some more businesses in this country. He has been given the opportunity to invest in his fellow citizens. We have seen what the government does with our tax money.

[harrishill]

01:14 PM on 12/02/2010

If you are talking about Mr. Buffett, he is old enough to retire. He doesn't want to work now.
I admire him for trying to show others through talks, how to better manage money.
Eyes open in California

[toron]

01:50 AM on 11/26/2010

why don't you

[eurorationalconservative]

08:38 AM on 11/26/2010

because taxes are not voluntary...he is not stating it for himself..what he means to say is "people like me should be paying more taxes"....he is trying to influence tax policy...come on give the man credit for being fiscally responsible. and please dont counterargue thathe should just write a check to the US Treasury...that argument has been shot down multiple times already on this forum (read below).

[papajohn56]

08:54 PM on 11/29/2010

He can donate to the government if he'd like to.

[VanDiego]

09:52 PM on 11/30/2010

He would have more influence if he had paid taxes on his estate instead of avoiding them. It's all well and good to say that rich people need to pay more taxes, but avoiding the payment of estate taxes at the same time is hypocritical. Yes, estate taxes are not income taxes, but they are taxes none the less. He could have willed his estate to others in such a way that the estate would have had to pay about 50% or about $20 billion in taxes. Why didn't he do that?

[truthisneeded]

10:23 AM on 11/25/2010

Exactly, Mr. Buffett.

[TheHat921]

04:34 PM on 11/24/2010

While I appreciate Buffett's willingness to support the government and its programs for all, I do NOT appreciate Gates and others "call" for increased taxes for singles over $200K or marrieds over $250K. Before they declare those folks "wealthy", I think they should see whether the appropriate tax needs can be met by other changes like means testing SSA, making all wages subject to the 6.2% FICA, and proper taxation of estates.

[moutonnoir]

04:35 AM on 11/30/2010

nah.. they should make people pay taxes fairly. it is patently unfair the way the tax system is setup. if you make in the 200k range, you realize how much less you have to pay, gross, than a poor person.. man up.

[eva07]

07:25 AM on 11/30/2010

I don't follow your logic there. I think the point he is trying to make that we reach the top tax rate at a relatively low level. We could and should have more progressive rates, like we used to. We could have a higher rate from $1million and and even higher from $10million. Making $200,000 net is not the same as making $50 million.

[dkrypt]

12:27 PM on 11/24/2010

Nothing is stopping Buffett (or anyone else who believes in higher taxes) from paying extra taxes. The government will accept the money if you direct them to. You can even specifically direct them to use the extra money for paying down the national debt.

In short, liberals want everyone to pay extra taxes, but are unwilling to do so voluntarily themselves.

[ER1K]

12:42 PM on 11/24/2010

How about Republicans pay off the $13 Trillion national debt since they are responsible for at least 90% of it.
Buffet is a Democrat so dont blame him!

Reagan TRIPLED the debt to $3 Trillion
Bush Sr took it to $5 Trill
Clinton to $5.5 Trill
Bush Jr took it to $11 Trillion (and tanked the economy for extra points)

[turf]

01:00 PM on 11/24/2010

Wow! ER1K,
Where did you get your "Facts"?
So you are saying that Obama has not spent any money nor contributed to the massive debt?
Stimulus times 2?
ObamaCare?
Two CONTINUING Wars?
Bailouts?
Unemployment benefits for 99 weeks?

In an attempt to educate you, please go to this link:

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/

It compares the defecit under Bush II and Obama. Take the blinders off and look for yourself. Infomation is a powerful thing.

[ER1K]

01:45 PM on 11/24/2010

David Stockman, Regan's budget director from 1981 to 1985 calls GOP tax cuts delusional.

Stockman tied today's ballooning debt and deficits to the GOP's "embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter if they result from tax cuts."

He says the debt explosion is "not from big spending by the Democrats."

This bears repeating. The debt explosion is not from big government spending by the Democrats, he says.

Stockman is a fiscally conservative Republican who worked to dismantle the so-called welfare state during his term as Office of Management and Budget director. He was a leading advocate of the pro-big-business "supply-side, trickle down" economic policies that Reagan adopted. Yet now he charges that it's Republicans who are responsible for the debt explosion with their tax cuts for super-rich.

Stockman, a deficit hawk, called it a "delusion" to say that tax cuts will get the economy to grow and narrow the deficit
http://www.peoplesworld.org/reagan-s-budget-director-calls-gop-tax-cuts-delusional/

[Jeff1958]

01:00 PM on 11/24/2010

In short, CONservatives think they know what liberals want. Just like all the others, you miss the mark. It's rather ironic that liberals want to reduce the national debt and have a government that operates in the black while conservatives oppose ANYTHING a liberal says, even when it's a "conservative" principle. Buffett isn't going to balance the budget with his donation; it will take everyone to pitch in. People like you always want others to do the heavy lifting while you criticize from the sidelines. Lame.

[harrishill]

01:25 PM on 12/02/2010

While discussing Republicans versus Conservatives, I'd like to comment that All politicians in government, including Republicans, hold government healthcare cards. Yet, they say the average person shouldn't want to have healthcare run by government. They label it "Socialist". I want to point out, that because the government healthcare cards guarantee for those lucky politicians, that if they get cancer, they won't be cut off. Why? because it's government run.
Eyes open, in California.

[TheHat921]

12:17 PM on 11/24/2010

As a tax lawyer I can tell you two things that I know from sitting in corporate planning meetings: 1) businesses don't fail to grow BECAUSE of high federal tax rates; the thought that a company would plan NOT to grow their top line (gross income) due to "fear" of high taxes in laughable, and 2) "uncertainty" about health care costs and taxes have absolutely nothing to do with whether a company hires a worker or not. Companies hire workers based on whether the worker will be deemed productive (i.e., will he/he make money for the company) - period!
Fact is, as Warren know, if we cut government revenue as the primary way to cut the deficit we will hasten falling into another deep recession, and will not be able to successfully reign in the deficit anyway.

[Enroh Mot]

12:06 PM on 11/24/2010

Now for something completely different.......why doesn't Buffett write a check for the IRS.

[Jeff1958]

01:01 PM on 11/24/2010

LOL

[eurorationalconservative]

01:18 PM on 11/24/2010

why would he? what impact would it have? he is not that rich. He is trying to solve the problem. it would take a lot of us to pay more taxes to make a dent on $13B of debt. Please be rational. Can you give us a better solution to paying down the debt? Buffett offers his. Please counter propose

[Enroh Mot]

01:33 PM on 11/24/2010

Obtuse much, or just satire challenged.

[turf]

11:56 AM on 11/24/2010

Buffet has been spouting this belief since at least 2007. I am interested to see if he ever opened his checkbook and simply wrote a check to the US Treasury if that where he thinks his money, and that of his peers, could do the best work.

[Jeff1958]

01:03 PM on 11/24/2010

Suuuuure, one guy opens his mouth and now it's HIS responsibility to come up with $14,000,000,000,000. Lame.

[turf]

01:17 PM on 11/24/2010

I don't think you understand the comment. It's simple.
If Buffett wants to give more, no one is stopping him. Simply write the check. I never said he would magically fix the deficit. I am merely stating that he can donate if he wishes. No more or less than you can send in an extra $50 or $50 Million if you wish.
Maybe that check from Buffett could off-set the building of one school or onefreeway or one hospital. Did you send in extra money with your taxes last year just to help out? I didn't think so. Hypocracy is alive and well.

[eurorationalconservative]

01:19 PM on 11/24/2010

I agree with Jeff...lets be rational....unless many of us pay more taxes we cant pay off this huge debt.