Warren Buffett: Leave my secretary alone
Buffett said Gregory “doesn’t have any idea, just zero. If I were to estimate his salary, I’d probably be closer than he is.” You can’t estimate salaries from tax rates, he said.
Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said the issue isn’t Bosanek’s income, nor is her tax rate unusually high. “They can’t attack the facts, so they attack the person. It’s ridiculous.”
Bosanek said she’s not complaining about her salary or the taxes she pays, nor will she apologize for the home she bought last year in Surprise, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb. One blogger announced that she made the purchase “despite a heavy tax burden.”
“I just thought it was time to buy a home,” she said. “Warren tells me that it will be the best opportunity in my lifetime. Mortgage rates are low and prices have dropped dramatically. Getting a nice home in a great climate for only a $30,000 down payment and a mortgage that has a low interest rate — I’ve been working 37 years and saving for an opportunity like this.
Blowback
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Sure, it isn’t like you dragged her into the spotlight or anything.
roy_batty on January 27, 2012 at 12:43 PM
You threw her to the wolves. Then demand the wolves don’t attack her?
portlandon on January 27, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Who brought her into the conversation?
cjtony97 on January 27, 2012 at 12:44 PM
No Warren, you d-bag. We’re asking for facts because all you give us is a person. Project much?
CycloneCDB on January 27, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Says the jerk who trotted her out in front of the press to try and make some lame point about how “fair” it is to redistribute wealth.
UltimateBob on January 27, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Let’s just consider her an in kind contribution to the Re-elect BHO Committee
tmitsss on January 27, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Buffet-speak Translation Machine:
“I know I brought it up, but shut up already. She is beginning to understand just how underpaid she is.”
novaculus on January 27, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Cry me a river, Buffett, you whining stooge. You can’t even pay your own effing taxes.
CantCureStupid on January 27, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Warren, you senile jack-off.
Now you know how Joe the Plumber felt to have his whole life scrutinized just for daring to ask your boy a simple question.
UltimateBob on January 27, 2012 at 12:48 PM
Warren Buffett 2011: Look at my secretary! She is taxed more than me!! LOOK AT HER!
Warren Buffett 2012: Leave my secretary alone!
Gatsu on January 27, 2012 at 12:49 PM
And did so willingly, too.
Blake on January 27, 2012 at 12:49 PM
So if she makes $60,000/year, please show me how she can pay an effective tax rate of 35.8%?
WashJeff on January 27, 2012 at 12:49 PM
buffett, you gonna tell bho to leave your secretary alone also? buffett, you gonna tell mo that she should not have had your secretary in the ‘queen’s box’ next to her at the sotu? buffett, you and bho plowed up this snake, now you want to put the snake back in the bottle!
L
letget on January 27, 2012 at 12:50 PM
Doc Zero’s take on El Presidente Downgrade use of her as a class warfare stage prop:
Chip on January 27, 2012 at 12:50 PM
I can hear the violins…
gaius on January 27, 2012 at 12:50 PM
Sounds like she just bought her first home, or at least her first vacation/retirement home. If that’s the case, then YOU are the one who left her alone, Warren, after all she has done for you over these many years.
Some friend you are.
/
Christien on January 27, 2012 at 12:50 PM
Or, “Why is the thing I made and issue suddenly an issue?”
alchemist19 on January 27, 2012 at 12:51 PM
I hope she writes a tell-all book about old Warren, warts and all, and laughs all the way to the bank.
Christien on January 27, 2012 at 12:53 PM
“That rate is for everything Bosanek pays to the federal government — income taxes as well as payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare.”
Only is you charge the employers part of the taxes to her as well. which is fine, but Buffett is not doing the same to himself when he says he pays 17%.
Zaggs on January 27, 2012 at 12:56 PM
Buffett is a pathetic old man who hates his life and is trying buy some fame.
kunegetikos on January 27, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Wait, what?
rogerb on January 27, 2012 at 12:59 PM
That is the saddest statement in the article. It means that are tax code is so riddled with exceptions and loopholes that any amount of money can be hidden inside them. We are insane, and we’ll soon be paying for our insanity.
DFCtomm on January 27, 2012 at 1:00 PM
Exactly.
Oh please let this be the beginning of the end of policy by anecdote. Especially since there is no actual policy proposal behind this one.
MayBee on January 27, 2012 at 1:00 PM
Keep your secretary out of politics moron.
NotCoach on January 27, 2012 at 1:01 PM
It’s kind of hard to even discuss “the facts”, when none have been presented. What Buffett has presented is an empty vessel to represent the conclusion without showing his work. Then he gets all pissy because people won’t simply take his word for it, they want to check his math. In scholastic terms, this is called cheating, or fraud.
Hey, Warren, WHAT’S PHASE 2?
fitzfong on January 27, 2012 at 1:03 PM
But, but, but – if you say we should simplify the tax code…you are RACIST! So what’s a boy to do?
CycloneCDB on January 27, 2012 at 1:04 PM
Sure thing pal, soon as the Bush Twins and Palin kids are off limits…
Pqlyur1 on January 27, 2012 at 1:04 PM
So Moneybags McBigmouth only pays her $60K per year, then drags her into as a political prop into a fight between taxpayers and the Looter in Chief on purpose, then tells people to stop paying attention to her.
WTF?
Good Lt on January 27, 2012 at 1:04 PM
It is amusing to see which stories the LibTrolls comment on, and those that they don’t.
CycloneCDB on January 27, 2012 at 1:06 PM
No one is attacking your secretary – they’re asking questions about why her tax rate is so high (because she earns a BOATLOAD of money and isn’t eating catfood, as people might imagine), and they’re attacking you for your disingenuousness, Warren.
God, you’re almost stupid enough to be a conservative.
disa on January 27, 2012 at 1:08 PM
Bosanek is a cupid stunt because she let herself be used this way. Oh, and she got to sit in the box with Moochele during the SOTU.
Buffet can go pound sand. He is the guy who likes the death tax. Because that’s when he swoops in and buys up those little companies because the heirs can’t afford to pay the taxes on the inheritance.
Mirimichi on January 27, 2012 at 1:08 PM
You brought her into the discussion, Warren. If you don’t want us to talk about her then stop bringing her up.
Karmashock on January 27, 2012 at 1:09 PM
How can such an idiotic old man be such a smart old successful man?
jake-the-goose on January 27, 2012 at 1:09 PM
It’s like when the muslims use human shields then wail when the human shields get killed by bombs.
SouthernGent on January 27, 2012 at 1:12 PM
Give her the Joe the Plumber treatment, I say. As for the Buffett plan, it doesn’t stop at taxing millionaires, does it? $250+ is considered millionaire according to Obama.
ctmom on January 27, 2012 at 1:14 PM
Then pay her better and maybe she can retire and then file taxes at the same cap gains rate you do.
Speakup on January 27, 2012 at 1:15 PM
Wasn’t that 60k figure from 5 years ago? She never got a raise? Also wouldn’t she need 0 deductions of any sort to iht that high rate?
Zaggs on January 27, 2012 at 1:15 PM
OK. I’m all in favor of a new tax law. We’ll call it the Buffett tax. Warren Buffett will be taxed at 100% from now on. “All the other people’s” taxes will remain the same.
taznar on January 27, 2012 at 1:18 PM
Buffet, you did more to thrust (ha ha!) your secretary into the public eye than anyone else by using her as a prop to make a partisan political point!
And then she stepped into herself by accepting Obama’s invitation to thee SOTU so he could do the same thing!
…so go cry your crocodile tears for someone who cares.
Oh, and BTW…I can attack the facts instead of the person, alright. You’re comparing your secretary’s income taxes to your capital gains taxes, you disingenuous jackass.
If you’re really so worried about your secretary’s tax rate, plop a few million on her. Then she’ll pay income taxes on it once (just as you did), and then pay low capital gains taxes for the rest of her life after she invests it (just as you do).
In other words, eff off. Or sell your nonsense to people who will buy it – like mentally challenged liberal voters and members of the press.
DRayRaven on January 27, 2012 at 1:18 PM
If that is true, then so is the reverse. You can’t estimate tax rates from salaries. Meaning, of course, that maybe millionaires and billionaires are in fact paying their fair share.
BobMbx on January 27, 2012 at 1:19 PM
But you CAN determine the MINIMUM income required to get you into a particular tax bracket or effective rate.
Buffett, like all Obama cronies, is a dishonest pig, angling for more slops to fill his trough.
peski on January 27, 2012 at 1:19 PM
Paging Michael Ramirez…
slickwillie2001 on January 27, 2012 at 1:20 PM
Very good. You said what I wanted to.
Mirimichi on January 27, 2012 at 1:21 PM
Tell it to Joe the plumber.
Scrappy on January 27, 2012 at 1:22 PM
He’s not and idiot, he’s corrupt. He’s lobbying for policies that will directly benefit him and his company financially.
peski on January 27, 2012 at 1:25 PM
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the First Lady’s box seats.
Doughboy on January 27, 2012 at 1:25 PM
Says the fool who exposed her. He sound like Mitt Romney “don’t criticize me; I only started the turdfest”.
Schadenfreude on January 27, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Who is “attacking her”? She, her billionaire boss, and Obama all claim her tax rate is unfair. I hardly think asking what her salary is can be called an “attack”. Refusing to disclose her income is what is “ridiculous”.
Dollayo on January 27, 2012 at 1:34 PM
You know, if obama wants everyone to get a equal wage, why doesn’t he recommend that to his friend Warren to pay his secretary what he pays himself?
ConservativePartyNow on January 27, 2012 at 1:34 PM
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