Nope. "...Revenues are down about 2 or 3 percent. So if you look at where the problem is, the problem is in spending, not taxes..."
I'd like to see how Buffett gets a 17% tax rate on his income. I would have thought the AMT alone would bump him into the 20's. Perhaps there are some tax professionals out there who can shed some light on this. I am beginning to suspect that this is another liberal fable that won't stand up to examination. You know, like Bill Clinton was a good president, obama is an intellectual and the republican presidential candidates are not worthy of being on the same stage os obama.
<a href="http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn245/marie01_08/Smileys%20and%20Stuff/?action=view&current=AnimatedRollingEyesSmiley.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn245/marie01_08/Smileys%20and%20Stuff/AnimatedRollingEyesSmiley.gif" border="0" alt="Animated Rolling Eyes Smiley"></a> If you're so utterly desperate to pay higher taxes why not move to a high tax country so you can be at peace with yourself? Rather than trying to get the rest of us who are utterly disgusted with how our taxes are being squandered to pay even more than we already do.
Mathematically speaking I am correct. We can dispute the initial rate. Besides, you're already admitted you don't pay a lot in taxes.
I have looked at this again and concluded that the only way buffett got this rate was that LT cap gains were the vast majority of his income. I can't see that he would qualify for the "carried interest" dodge, but he clearly has a situation that is not reflective of people in general. Personally, I think carried interest should be repealed. A fund manager's incentive comp looks like ordinary income to me, not cap gain. There are plenty of indefensible dodges like this in the tax law, but the cumulative revenue impact of them is minimal. I noticed that buffett refrained from calculating how much his suggested tax increase on million dollar earners would produce. obviously, the answer is not enough to pay for a year's worth of vacations for obama and marie antoinette michelle. The republicnas have drawn a useful linein the saned: no tax increases. Obama and his lackeys like buffett want to first delegitimize that line by citing small but annoying flaws in the tax code. Then, once the principle of no new taxes is forgoten, they can get on with sticking it to the rest of us.
That we have relatively lower tax rates, maybe. That we have a revenue problem, NOT HARDLY. NO Ricter, I admitted I'm not complaining about LOCAL taxes. You've simply spun that into what you wanted to hear to avoid, yet again, dealing with reality. Now how about that question you avoided. If you're so utterly desperate to pay more taxes why won't you move to a high tax country so you can be at peace with yourself.?
Same for you, then. If taxes are "too high", if it's all about government spending, why don't you move and, uhh, no, on second thought please stay there, and withhold some of the tax you owe? Again, just a percentage is all that's necessary to set an example.
Are you drunk? According to YOU I already live in a country with low tax rates. Where the fuck am I gonna move to?