I got a chance to meet with him in small groups a few times in school. Sometimes I think the guy is more worried about attaining saint status among feel-gooders than actually make a decision based on principal. I feel like he hides it well to most people, but every time he opens his mouth its more apparent what a socialist nutjob the guy is. He's lost it. All the Buffet worshipers who hang on every word are so annoying. There's a reason I didn't want a picture with you, get over it. Buy hey, he'll have plenty of stuff named after him when he's gone. :/
I agree Buffet's a jerk. Duplicitous, preachy, parasitic.... OTOH, I too favor an increase in cap gains and a MASSIVE reduction in ordinary rates. Wages are a product of work. Earned wages are sacrosanct. Most capital gains are a product of inflation. Earnings ect. tend to keep pace with prices paid. Price as we know reflects devalued dollars. Thus longer term gains are often caused ipso facto by crap government policies. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.
amd now, 2 minutes Buffet Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....Buffet ....'The Oracle of Omaha'....
The problem with trading one rate cut for an increase in another rate is that ina few years, congress will come back and raise the rate that was cut. Isn't that just what happened with the Reagan tax reform? We had a huge real estate bust to eliminate these loopholes so we could get lower marginal rates and what happens? Reagan gets forced to increase rates, then Bush "Read My Lips" betrays us, then we get the final shaft from Clinton "Middle Class Tax cut" . That 28% top rate is suddenly 39%, and you can add a layer of AMT on top. You make a valid point about cap gains being largely inflation. I don't follow how that justifies rasing the rates on them, but they should be indexed for inflation, which however would be a nightmare administratively. As for Buffett, it's a rare man who can hear himself called a genius every day and not let it go to his head. Buffett reminds me of John McCain. He knows how to get the mainstream media's adulation, and he likes getting the love.
Do you think it's fair to have to pay taxes just because inflation put a bigger number on the stuff you already owned? Or, for that matter, to reward the government with a big pile of money for its "crap government policies"?
I am shocked, absolutely shocked! I find myself agreeing with you. (Buffet is OK with me though. It is easy for Buffet to be nice now that he is holding four aces.) We are really only fooling ourselves by thinking we will gain anything net by lowering taxes in a heavy deficit spending environment. If we don't pay via direct taxation we will pay via indirect. So select your poison gentlemen. The answer of course is to control the fiscal side. Get a grip, and cut spending. Particularly military spending, which is unproductive spending, mostly on wasting assets. Obama seems to me to be rather more conservative both with regards to fiscal responsibility and personal freedoms than either of the other too candidates. I have little doubt he will be elected whether we like it or not. As President, I am hoping he will surprise me in a good way by being neither a borrow and spend neo-con nor a tax and spend liberal. I expect him to be very liberal on social issues (which is a traditional conservative stance) and fiscally quite conservative. (The military industrial complex should be concerned. It's likely they won't fare as well under an Obama presidency. He obviously does not believe every problem has a military solution.)
Of course you're right but given a choice I'd rather see gains taxed more than income. Like you I ultimately believe true justice though would be a bullet in the head of every socialistic whiner in the U.S.