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Warren Buffet supports higher taxes on the wealthy, just as Alan Greenspan supported Clinton’s tax increases in 1992.

Didn’t Clinton leave us a recession?

The government has enjoyed record tax receipts courtesy of the Bush tax cuts. What more do you want? No need to answer….you clearly have no clue.

I had no idea that Buffet, Greenspan, and corporate CEO’s who understand fiscal policy were a bunch of idiots.

Here’s another name to add to your list of idiots- Ben Stein who recently said that one good way to run the US into the ground was not raising taxes during an economic boom. You see, business Republicans will simply never agree with you. If you want to make real money and be taken serious on Wall Street, you have to show results, not just float around pet theories.

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 2:21 PM

Yes because Ben Stein is such a genius, and Buffet is obviously a moron …

I like how you can selectively pick what celebrity to listen to, and what (extremely successful) business owner you want to listen to.

I agree with you all of the above. Of course, as Buffet pointed out it’s hard to understand how a rational tax policy would result in people like him paying a far lower overall tax rate than a school janitor. Welcome to a country with a $10 trillion debt. It would have been much easier to keep the budget balanced during the era of economic expansion under Bush. But now our backs are up against the wall.

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 2:27 PM

Buffet can pay all he wants. There’s really nothing stopping him. He could liquidate all his assets, send the proceeds to the treasury and take up a janatorial position, then pay additional taxes on his earnings.

If he were intellectually honest like you, that’s exactly what he’d do. Except he has that nagging back pain that just makes it unbearable.

Simply take a look at the sham that has taken place to remove NPLs (non performing loans) from the books of banks to meet capital adequacy requirements prior to joining WTO.

It was a sham. 20% + of NPLs were swapped for equity stakes in the failed companies (frequently state owned enterprises or SOEs) and then shown as assets on the books.

Here’s a story about an investigative journalist who uncovered massive bank fraud and found herself unemployed and the paper closed down.

Link

Ed, I take your point that the US govt is sliding inexorably toward more economic control and involvement, which is clearly folly. Clearly we need a pro growth, low tax and low regulatory environment for our economy to get back on its feet. However, China faces the very real challenge of having the wheels fall off the economy and and suffer sever social unrest. The number of riots have doubled over the last few months and are spreading to many of the rural areas where steel mills have been shuttered.

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 1:45 PM

bayam
There is something you left out. Can you think what it might be?
taxes, i.e. revenue vs …….what….something …. that has to balance when you do a budget.

You do know what a budget is, yes?

The idea that the Democrats will only increase taxes on the rich is incorrect. My biggest problem with the Democrats’ plan is that they will hurt S-Corps and other small business. I am self-employed and make less than 250k, and my tax burden stands to go up significantly under Rangel’s tax bill as it is now written. It’s not the income tax rate, but an expansion of the application of payroll tax. I also expect to see a significant increase in the rate of payroll taxes

I agree with you all of the above. Of course, as Buffet pointed out it’s hard to understand how a rational tax policy would result in people like him paying a far lower overall tax rate than a school janitor. Welcome to a country with a $10 trillion debt. It would have been much easier to keep the budget balanced during the era of economic expansion under Bush. But now our backs are up against the wall.

Here’s another name to add to your list of idiots- Ben Stein who recently said that one good way to run the US into the ground was not raising taxes during an economic boom.

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 2:21 PM

Yeah, Ben Stein’s a fool. So what?

It just hits men like my father: honest men that have worked their whole lives for something to give to their children only to see it gobbled up by bureaucrats and hyper-wealthy kingmakers like Warren Buffet

.

I had no idea that Buffet, Greenspan, and corporate CEO’s who understand fiscal policy were a bunch of idiots.

Here’s another name to add to your list of idiots- Ben Stein who recently said that one good way to run the US into the ground was not raising taxes during an economic boom. You see, business Republicans will simply never agree with you. If you want to make real money and be taken serious on Wall Street, you have to show results, not just float around pet theories.

Do you think that Warren Buffet and Alan Greenspan are irrational and don’t understand the consequences of tax policy on the economy?

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 1:45 PM

Greenspan was too stupid to know that recessions must be allowed every so often. He is also the moron who spoke about “irrational exuberance” in the stock market and then did nothing about margin requirements, allowing the bubble to grow and grow. As far as tax policy and its effects on the economy, he doesn’t seem to know too much, since he was working on a monetary disaster, himself – at least not doing anything about it, at all.

Buffet is just another guilt-ridden, limousine liberal who loves to tell others to give their money to the government but refuses to give his (remember who Buffet gave his big $32 billion donation to … not the US government). Buffet is another “do as I say, not as I do” moron.

What’s a rational tax policy- one that leads to a $9 trillion national debt?

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 1:45 PM

Almost forgot to address this. The debt is much more a product of reckless spending, overwhelming entitlements, and now massive bailouts than it is of tax policy. And yes, Republicans have been as bad as Democrats when it comes to spending.

bayam, good on you.

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 1:45 PM

The idea that the Democrats will only increase taxes on the rich is incorrect. My biggest problem with the Democrats’ plan is that they will hurt S-Corps and other small business. I am self-employed and make less than 250k, and my tax burden stands to go up significantly under Rangel’s tax bill as it is now written. It’s not the income tax rate, but an expansion of the application of payroll tax. I also expect to see a significant increase in the rate of payroll taxes, but we’ll have to wait to see how bad that gets when nationalized heath care is factored in. The bill also limits tax deductions and includes some “surchages” which will again disproportionately hit s-corps and other small businesses.

The summary is that they will claim to be reducing taxes by making nominal cuts to top corporate income tax rates, while tax burden actually goes up due to payroll tax and deduction rules changes – especially on smaller businesses.

But people on the right don’t care what top CEO’s, Greenspan, or Buffet think when there’s any disagreement over the precious ‘lower taxes’ mantra.

bayam on December 11, 2008 at 1:45 PM

I agree, we should have higher taxes for Greenspan, Buffet and any one else who wants them, including you. Not for others though.

To be honest, I don’t know why you have the funds necessary to have a computer and internet connection. You know, that money could be paying down the deficit and there’s already a mechanism in place to facilitate your donations to the treasury.

Remember that our current tax policy was dictated by right-leaning ideologues like Karl Rove.

Stopped reading right there.

Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffet et al. have their own reasons for supporting confiscatory progressive taxation. “Higher taxes on the rich” never touch men like them. It just hits men like my father: honest men that have worked their whole lives for something to give to their children only to see it gobbled up by bureaucrats and hyper-wealthy kingmakers like Warren Buffet.

Go choke, lefty. You want to give your wealth to an inept, greedy federal bureaucracy, go ahead. Leave the rest of us alone.

Here’s hoping they come to revere liberty as much as prosperity.

When one looks to Beijing for rational tax policies … well, that’s just a sad day for Americans, even if it does portend a brighter future for China.

What’s a rational tax policy- one that leads to a $9 trillion national debt? Warren Buffet supports higher taxes on the wealthy, just as Alan Greenspan supported Clinton’s tax increases in 1992. Do you think that Warren Buffet and Alan Greenspan are irrational and don’t understand the consequences of tax policy on the economy?

Remember that our current tax policy was dictated by right-leaning ideologues like Karl Rove. Bush’s own Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, strongly opposed the additional tax cuts on the wealthy. But people on the right don’t care what top CEO’s, Greenspan, or Buffet think when there’s any disagreement over the precious ‘lower taxes’ mantra.

It’s the kind of blind support of lower taxes, no matter what the consequences to our budget or deficit, that helped fuel the era of unreasonably cheap credit and all the ills that emerged from it in the first place. As long as the far right can’t accept the advice of its own business leaders and economists (like O’Neill and Greenspan), the harder it will be for the party to return to the majority.