All of Buffets assets should be seized.

Neal,

Don't be stupid. Warren Buffett is NOT claiming that he pays lower Federal or State income tax rates than his employees. He is showing how... but taking stock and capital rather than income... he pays a lower tax rate. And it is true. If I took a salary of 1 million dollars, I would take the highest tax rate there is. If I own the company, and the value increases by 1 billion and I sell my stock, I pay capital gains rates that are less than personal income rates. There is no con going on here. The statement is OBVIOUS to you and to me... so why do YOU try to distort it?

What WB doesn't hasn't fully examined or been honest about is that he is really advocating tax reform where capital gains rates are sharply progressive. That, too, might hurt companies and individuals that seek to expand business and create jobs by selling capital... stocks or property or other non-cash investments. WB looks at his own situation and says "I have plenty, I should not be allowed to do this". He doesn't look at the wider group of investors who pay lower rates on capital gains and ask if it would hurt society to raise those rates.

CLEARLY, high capital gains taxes reduces capital transactions. THAT is the point that you should be examining...not whether Warren Buffit is conning someone.

Forget about Jimmy Dolan. This guy is dumber that a tube of toothpaste. The perfect democrat voter. You're not going to change him with facts.

Boortz is completely right. He did call The Oracle of Omaha a con artist.

Mea Culpa oh Exalted One. hahahahahaha

The answer is to lower the taxes of your employees. You could also raise their pay to offset the "injustice".

Yeah, right.

To correct one thing. We do NOT tax WEALTH. We tax INCOME. Buffett has very low income and extremely high wealth.

Boortz is half right, this argument flies because of ignorance of the US sheeple, but it wouldn't be out there without the deception of Buffet.

Just write a check for "the amount you (think you) owe," make it payable to the United States Treasury and mail it in. They'll deposit it and use it for whatever The US Government uses money for, I guarantee it.

You're welcome, glad to help anytime,
"Ben from Norcross"

Conservatives aren't the people who hate it when others get rich. Conservatives want EVERYONE to work hard and get rich! Because conservatives understand that the economy (and wealth) is not a finite pie where everyone gets a slice, but some slices are bigger than others. So if I get a big slice, you get cheated. That's what liberals appear to believe. Conservatives understand that the economic pie is capable of growing and growing, until we all get the size slice we EARN through our hard work, creativity, risk-taking, etc. So Jimmy, the reason we get annoyed with Warren Buffet is because he speaks in sound bites that are, on their face, true, but are very misleading when you dig a little deeper to discover the reality of the situation. And we wouldn't even mind that, if the media didn't hold Warren Buffet up as some sort of prophet, and just publish his proclamations without disclosing the reality behind them.

Buffett pays capital gains taxes at the maximum rate of 15% (thanks to GWB and the Republican Congress).

The talk radio host called this lowered capital rates tax (and corresponding lowered dividend tax) a great victory for the people, because, after all, most Americans owned at least some stock or mutual funds.

What they failed to mention was that most Americans can't take advantage of teh 15% tax rate because they hold their stocks in IRAs and 401k accounts. While tax deferred, capital gains in retirement accounts are eventually taxed at ordinary income rates (i.e., up to 35%).

So the only ones who really benefitted from the lowered capital gains rates are those rich enough to hold their wealth outside of retirement accounts. The rest of Americans got screwed, and will get doubly screwed when ordinary income tax rates rise to pay down the deficits we incurred.

"Figures don't lie, but liars do figure"

Buffett also makes less in income (much less) than many of his employees.

IIRC, he takes around 100k in income. Of course many of the managers that work for him (they have 50k employees) make much more than that.

He also goes in his annual letters about the corporate structure of BRK, and how much more they have to pay in taxes than if they had a different structure.

Finally, he consistently points out how much BRK as a company pays. In his 2006 annual letter he says:
'''''Berkshire will pay about $4.4 billion in federal income tax on its 2006 earnings. In its last fiscal year the U.S. Government spent $2.6 trillion, or about $7 billion per day. Thus, for more than half of one day, Berkshire picked up the tab for all federal expenditures, ranging from Social Security and Medicare payments to the cost of our armed services. Had there been only 600 taxpayers like Berkshire, no one else in America would have needed to pay any federal income or payroll taxes.'''''

That's where the majority of his tax contribution is paid!

Neal beat me to the punch, see me comments on story above.

WB is a FLAMING HYPOCRITE.