Short and Sweet Blog

Remember my last post? It was all about the daylight which has appeared between Buffett and Obama on dividend and capital gains taxes. Buffet clearly thinks that people who already pay ordinary income taxes, as opposed to capital gains taxes, are taxed enough. Buffett’s thought is that people who make money in manipulating financial instruments, thereby paying an income tax rate of 15% on capital gains and dividends, should pay more. Mr. Obama has let the capital gains tax issue gather dust. Perhaps he has overlooked it or perhaps his connected financial backers don’t want that tax boondoggle to go away. Instead, this week, the president gave a speech on the ‘New Nationalism’ in which he once again tries to make us believe that everyone who makes a lot of money doesn’t pay his fair share. He actually suggests that Buffett agrees with him on this. Here is what our President said while attempting to emulate Progressive Party presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt:

Under President Clinton, the top rate was only about 39 percent. Today, thanks to loopholes and shelters, a quarter of all millionaires now pay lower tax rates than millions of you, millions of middle-class families. Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1 percent. One percent.

That is the height of unfairness. It is wrong. (Applause.) It’s wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker, maybe earns $50,000 a year, should pay a higher tax rate than somebody raking in $50 million. (Applause.) It’s wrong for Warren Buffett’s secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. (Applause.) And by the way, Warren Buffett agrees with me. (Laughter.) So do most Americans — Democrats, independents and Republicans. And I know that many of our wealthiest citizens would agree to contribute a little more if it meant reducing the deficit and strengthening the economy that made their success possible.

It’s enough to make a person cringe. The President of the United States seems to be fudging to the favor of his high dollar backers who, like Buffett, make their money in the financial business. I think he should be quiet about fairness until he returns to the issue of capital gains and to the position he forthrightly took in his campaign; that capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as all other income. When you do that, President Obama, come to the rest of the high income citizens, those who make their money in the real economy, and ask them for more. Until then, please just shut up.

This entry was posted on December 9, 2011 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Politics, Taxes. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.