Bill Gates: I Support Taxing The Rich More Than The Poor

Another super-rich celebrity is voicing support for taxing himself more than other Americans.

Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in an interview with ABC's This Week, highlighted by Think Progress, that he's "generally in favor of the idea that the rich should pay somewhat more" than everyone else.

Gates is the latest super-wealthy advocate of a progressive tax system. Famed investor Warren Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed last month that lawmakers should stop "coddling" the super-rich by giving them tax breaks. Def-Jam co-founder Russell Simmons told MSNBC's Martin Bashir last month that "we need to make the rich pay their fair share," a sentiment the multi-millionaire hip-hop mogul also expressed at the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park.

"There certainly is a case to be made that taxes should be more progressive," Gates said on This Week. Gates wouldn't say outright whether he supported the so-called Buffett rule -- a proposal named for Buffett included in President Barack Obama's deficit reduction plan that would raise taxes on millionaires.

But it's more than just the famous super-rich that support raising taxes on themselves. Sixty-eight percent of millionaires say they support a tax increase for those earning $1 million or more, according to a survey by The Spectrum Group. In addition, a group calling themselves the Patriotic Millionaires has been urging lawmakers for months to boost taxes on people like themselves.

It's not just millionaires that support a tax increase on the super-rich; ordinary Americans would also like to see the government raise taxes on the wealthy. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said in a Daily Kos poll last month that they support the Buffett rule. Sixty-four percent of Americans said in a CBS News poll that they believe that lawmakers should raise taxes on millionaires to reduce the nation's budget deficit.

And prominent economists may be agreeing with Americans that boosting taxes on millionaires would help to close the budget gap. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan -- a registered Republican -- told CNBC in an interview last month that it's time to let the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire.

Still, those looking to increase taxes on millionaires and billionaires may face an uphill battle; Republican leaders slammed Obama's deficit reduction plan as "class warfare" after he announced it. In addition, many of the GOP contenders for president favor tax systems that some argue are less progressive than what's currently in place.

Comments

[sobaytransplant]

02:10 AM on 11/21/2011

Just a blanket statement I'd like to put out there for all of you who are saying millionaires should NOT pay a higher tax rate. Please rest assured that it doesn't really matter what you think. We, the People (the vast majority of the American population) thinks they SHOULD pay more and we've have had quite enough of this inequality. This system has allowed a small percentage of people to eat fillet minion while the rest of us clamor for scraps from their tables. No more. The tax rates for those people WILL increase in order to restore balance and fairness to our country, as well as getting our economy back on track. You don't have to like it. You can go live somewhere else instead if you prefer, but in AMERICA the wrongs are going to be righted again.

To quote Mr, Spock, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

[madgrrl]

12:19 AM on 11/21/2011

I guess according to the Republicans Bill Gates must be a lefty socialist who believes the government must care for everyone cradle to grave and can't appreciate that the rich are superhero job creators who need these tax breaks more than everyone else.

[KaleighGMcLaury]

07:51 AM on 11/07/2011

I meet with these persons who are living on disability incomes because they are diabetic or blind or have some misfortune that robs them from being able to be economically productive. If they were taxed a flat tax on their disability checks of $850 of less they would not be able to eat. In America this is shameful politics. There but for the grace of God go you or I.

[KaleighGMcLaury]

07:46 AM on 11/07/2011

Interesting. Another vote against 9-9-9!

[damdelion12]

01:28 PM on 11/02/2011

Don't blame Bill Gates. Guys/gals like he must kiss up to the powers that be or the federal government can/will cream them with regulations designed to subjugate capitalism... (and they know it)...

[madgrrl]

12:20 AM on 11/21/2011

I take that you are being sarcastic and know very little about Bill Gates.

[sobaytransplant]

01:41 AM on 11/21/2011

I would say that persons knows VERY, VERY little about Bill Gates and his foundations.

[Dana1982]

11:57 AM on 11/02/2011

Funny from a guy who is giving his money to a charity in order to avoid taxes. If Mr. gates were an honest man, he would still pay taxes on the money he donated to his charity. But then again, if he were honest, Windows would not be a product.

[madgrrl]

12:23 AM on 11/21/2011

He isn't giving the money away to avoid taxes. He doesn't need to do that - instead he is trying to rid the world of Malaria.

[sobaytransplant]

01:44 AM on 11/21/2011

Wow! Never seen so many people who can take a golden apple (no pun intended) and try to make it look like a ROAD apple with a quick few taps on your keyboard! The man does HONEST and good works to help the world. What have YOU (or any of your elected reps) done recently that can even compare?

[rolor]

10:41 AM on 11/02/2011

It looks like Bill's suddenly become a pariah for right wingers who figured he was okay when he voluntarily gave away money after becoming one of the wealthiest people in the world through the capitalist principles they so admire. I imagine Bill won't mind reading a few less Christmas cards this year.

[njcioffi]

09:37 AM on 11/02/2011

This might be anecdotal and off topic, but seeing as how everyone seems to be commenting on Gates' character and how he uses his wealth, I thought it was semi-pertinent. When I was younger I worked for a limo/cab company in the Phoenix area that Bill gates used 2-3 times a year. He consitently would tip our drivers $100 on a $15 fare. Not all rich folks are misers.

[madgrrl]

12:24 AM on 11/21/2011

Thank you for sharing that. That is very cool.

[tonyg10]

09:26 AM on 11/02/2011

Bill again I say, no one is keeping you from sending the government more money than you owe in taxes, if you feel that you are not paying enough. Why wait until you are forced by a change in the tax code if you are so concerned about not paying enough? Another BS artist with loads of money.

[rolor]

10:35 AM on 11/02/2011

Ahhh... the ol' donation chestnut often used by the same cheapskate who conveniently forgets his wallet when out to dinner with "friends".

[sobaytransplant]

01:49 AM on 11/21/2011

What I find absolutely amazing is that all you penny posters are in here DEFENDING millionaires getting tax breaks they neither deserve nor do they NEED. Meanwhile, YOU are trawl.ing internet blogs to pick up a quarter here and there - and probably barely making your own rent. You don't see the irony, do you?

For the record, Bill Gates isn't a B.S. artist. He's pretty famous for the charities he supports with his money.

[ImConfused]

06:44 AM on 11/02/2011

The problem here is not the tax rate but the fact most of these very rich individuals make their money from Capital Gains. Raise the tax rate on the Capital Gains and you will see a huge amount of money coming in.

[rolor]

10:37 AM on 11/02/2011

Agreed. Capital Gains is the primary, if not only source of income for the wealthy. There's no reason it shouldn't be taxed at the same rates as employment income.

[Joshua Ip]

08:01 AM on 11/21/2011

Or we could stop our insane foreign policy and save more than the rich pay yearly in taxes in one fell swoop...

[saileyboy]

06:30 AM on 11/02/2011

Do the repubs hear the will of the people? Obviously not.

[gammay]

01:21 AM on 11/02/2011

I applaud Buffet, Gates and others who say this. But, telling the media is not going to change anything. These guys need to go to congress and state their thoughts. Until that happens, nothing will change.

[Armand77789]

12:59 AM on 11/02/2011

To a mass a large accumulation of resources in order to benefit financially without sharing is breaking one of the ten commandments. I know the false prophets of the right do not like to hear this.

[DennisTheMenance]

06:14 PM on 11/01/2011

Well, we just have to get rid of the CAPITAL GAINS TAX Con Game..
Invest $1 million, make $100k yr off of it and only pay 15% Taxes on that $100k yr..
Just do the math x Bill Gates $.. Warren Buffets, etc..

How about Invest $100 million and it only makes 6%? = $6 Million yr and you pay? Only 15% Cap Gain Taxes!

Just as long as you don't take it out sooner than 12 mos/1 yr, if you do ? then it's 28% CG tax..

I couldn't believe Made over $150k on my Investments after 5 yrs and only had to pay ? 15% CG taxes..

But? If you invest it in to Bonds? You have to pay Ordinary Income tax..
Now does that CG tax favor the Wall Street Stock/Equity Business or what?

Get rid of the Capital Gains tax system- Tax both as ordinary income

[sobaytransplant]

01:55 AM on 11/21/2011

Nope. Sorry.

[h23154]

04:56 PM on 11/01/2011

You can make the argument to make taxes more progressive, and that means simply that everyone pays the same taxes on the same income. If X is in a higher bracket than Y and pays a higher rate on the last $100,000 X makes because that pushes X in to a higher bracket, and does not make it to that brcker, it simply means that X had income Y did not. Up to that they paid the same taxes. That's the marginal rates argument that seems to get lost when the GOP throws out its nonsense.