[TheRealThing]

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Investor Warren Buffett, one of America's richest men, said he and his wealthy friends should have to pay more to the government.

In a New York Times opinion piece, Buffett said he would immediately raise rates on households with taxable income of more than $1 million, and he would add an additional increase for those making $10 million or more.

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress," Buffett wrote. "It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

Buffett also recommended that Congress' new debt-reduction supercommittee leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged.

Buffett noted that the mega-rich pay practically nothing in payroll taxes, while the middle class is hit with heavy payroll taxes.

Last year, Buffett paid $7 million in taxes. That sounds like a lot of money, but it works out to a tax rate of just 17 percent. Buffett points out that, on average, his employees pay about double that rate - 33 percent.

He said Washington legislators "feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species."

Buffett said he knows many of the mega-rich well, and most wouldn't mind paying more in taxes, especially when so many fellow citizens are suffering. He also said he has yet to see anyone shy away from investments because of tax rates on potential gains, even when rates were much higher in the mid-1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

"People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off," he said.

It didn't take long for President Barack Obama to embrace Buffett's call to tax to the rich.

But critics like conservative Pat Buchanan were just as quick to dismiss it.

"Why doesn't he set an example and send a check for $5 billion to the federal government? He's got about $40 billion," Buchanan said.
Buffett, like other wealthy Americans, gets tax breaks on capital gains - the profits resulting from investments - and they're taxed at only 15 percent.

According to Obama, wealthy Americans are those who make $200,000 a year or more. Buffett wants to raise taxes on those making $1 million or more. An additional 1-percent tax on the richest Americans is estimated to raise $100 billion in revenues over 10 years, which some tax experts said is not enough.

"The bottom line is that the fiscal hole that we face is so large that everybody is going to have to be prepared to pay more in revenues in the end," said Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

I Urge you to watch this!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/269517/the-dai...ug-18-2011

100 Billion over the next 10 years huh? If you take our projected deficit 10 years from now you're talking about 25 Trillion Dollars. 100 Billion subtracted from that amount in the form of a fraction would look like this 1/2,500th of the debt, (money we borrow only, not the whole budget) So, if you want to get an idea what that means in terms of real savings divide one dollar into 2500 equal parts and subtract 1 of those parts, which will leave you with 2,499 equal parts still owed. That's putting a dent in the old balance sheet boy! And you're spreading that amount out over the course of a decade. More fuzzy math from the liberal truth benders.

This whole business about taxing the rich is eyewash. Obama knows it is meaningless, the Real intent here is to get people like---YOU? to get an attitude about the so called rich people so that redistribution of wealth will become ethical in the eyes of the American public. Hitler blamed the Jew in much the same way with the devastatingly effective results.

We are spending our way into oblivion. Simultaneously, prices for energy and food are going through the roof and the worm of inflation eats away at the value of the dollar. Do you really think the democrats can deliver utopia to you on a platter? Without spending cuts I predict we will not be taking the air of freedom into our lungs by the time we reach the predicted 25 trillion national debt plateau.

Very soon you will see the true meaning of "the fundamental transformation of the United States of America" in all it's horror. But, you're probably telling yourself you'll be above the strife along with all the other dems right? It will be those republicans that will be finally getting what they deserve.:please:

Regrettably, I wasted enough time to watch your provided link. You're gonna reference comedy central while you pooh pooh Wikipedia? LOL Every society in history has had it's poor, but, even in the beginning Kings and rulers knew if they issued an invitation to belly up to the free lunch bar, the numbers of the poor on the dole would literally explode. So they didn't start down the road that has only one ending point, national downfall. I hate to see somebody hurting too, and they should be helped but, that isn't the limit what we do in this country. We house, clothe, feed, medicate (mentally and physically), and provide cell phones, just to name the more common ones. And, unfortunately, human nature assures us that many will take advantage of people willing to give things away. As long as we will hand things out there will always be more hands stuck out than we could ever hope to possibly fill.

Stewart's rant on your link doesn't take into the account the fact that we have 2nd and 3rd generation welfare recipients in this country. While the lower paying service jobs all wind up going to immigrants legal and illegal, or to student summer help. In the old movies we commonly see soda jerks and gas station attendants portrayed along with every kind of service job we could name. Americans have become too good to do many of these jobs, but, not too good to recieve government entitilements. The reason immigrants don't feel too good to do service related jobs is because they haven't yet acquired the uniquely American position that some work is beneath them. They are still saddled by the quaint notion if one want's to eat he must work. Of course, give Obama time, he'll get all that nonsense out of their heads. How about a nice check included along with their amnesty papers and a democrat voter registration form?