Mr. Buffet about taxing the ultra-wealthy americans !

“The wealthiest individuals in America hit a new group record for wealth this year: $1.7 trillion. That’s more than five times the $300 billion total in 1992. In recent years, my gang has been leaving the middle class in the dust. A huge tail wind from tax cuts has pushed us along. In 1992, the tax paid by the 400 highest incomes in the United States averaged 26.4 percent of adjusted gross income. In 2009, the most recent year reported, the rate was 19.9 percent.”
Mr. Buffett also noted that “The group’s average income in 2009 was $202 million — which works out to a “wage” of $97,000 per hour, based on a 40-hour workweek. (I’m assuming they’re paid during lunch hours.) Yet more than a quarter of these ultra-wealthy paid less than 15 percent of their take in combined federal income and payroll taxes. Half of this crew paid less than 20 percent. And — brace yourself — a few actually paid nothing. “
While he prefers a cutoff point for the elimination of the Bush-era tax cuts for the $500K and above class, Mr. Buffett has the following set of pivotal suggestions for President Obama, Congress, and anyone interested in truly addressing the US deficit situation:

• We need Congress, right now, to enact a minimum tax on high incomes.


• I would suggest 30 percent of taxable income between $1 million and $10 million, and 35 percent on amounts above that.


• Only a minimum tax on very high incomes will prevent the stated tax rate from being eviscerated by these [lobbyist] warriors for the wealthy.


• Above all, we should not postpone these changes in the name of “reforming” the tax code.


• We need to get rid of arrangements like “carried interest” that enable income from labor to be magically converted into capital gains.


• It’s sickening that a Cayman Islands mail drop can be central to tax maneuvering by wealthy individuals and corporations.


•  Our government’s goal should be to bring in revenues of 18.5 percent of G.D.P. and spend about 21 percent of G.D.P. — levels that have been attained over extended periods in the past and can clearly be reached again.

Apparently, Mr. Buffett’s “radical” ideas are catching on in the USA. A couple of weeks ago, former Mitt Romney economics aide Glenn Hubbard  (Dean of the Columbia Business School) “broke ranks” with the Grover Norquist School and is now advocating higher taxes for the rich in America.
Yesterday, Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss apparently also broke ranks with Mr. Norquist’s pledge and expressed his concern for his country as being above on his priority list than the “no new tax” promise etched into the Norquist “Bible.” None other than SC Senator Lindsey Graham also apparently softened his former stance in a major way, when, on November 19 he told one publication that he stands ready to break the aforementioned pledge for the sake of resolving the Fiscal Cliff issue and the US’ deficit conundrum.
Until next time,

By Jon Nadler