Just what is the “Buffett Rule”?
Is there more than one “Buffett Rule”?
One hard and fast “Buffett Rule” (#1) we can assume is always operative with the “Oracle of Omaha.” That is, that one is always obliged to pay only those taxes that one cannot avoid, one way or another, legally or otherwise.
Warren is testing this rule as we speak and has aggressively, throughout his business career. At present he is fighting the IRS to avoid paying some billion dollars in back taxes it says his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, owes . One must wonder if maybe Mr. Buffett’s enthusiastic support for our sainted president and all things Democratic Party might not be a big help in this dispute. After all, Treasury Sec. Geithner, who runs the IRS, certainly has a soft spot in his heart for people, like himself, who prefer not to pay taxes… if they espouse the correct political ideology.
Buffett Rule #2: Proclaim loudly to all of your “fans” in the media, your remarkable generosity. Demonstrate it by making frequent public disclosures of the “good” things the charitable foundation you and your billionaire buddy, “Billy” Gates, run. Maximize the public relations returns you get from the adoration heaped on you by the media by exhorting fellow billionaires to join with you and Billy by bequeathing their fortunes to your foundation. And…while you’re sheltering your vast fortune from the clutches of the federal government, join with our president and his party’s leadership in calling for the restoration of the “death tax”. You know the one. The one he’s insured his estate will never pay because of Warren’s “generosity”. Few in the media ever ask Warren why he and “Billy” prefer to use this “loophole” so they may choose when, to what cause, and how much of their personal fortunes will be used after their deaths…rather than assigning those huge fortunes to the federal government, as they wish other, lesser beings would do with their much smaller fortunes. Do Warren and Billy believe they can use this money more efficiently and effectively than , say, Mr. Obama and his government bureaucrats?
Then, there’s “Buffett Rule #3”: Again, related to Warren’s renowned generosity: “Never let the rubes who lack the many opportunities to shelter income from taxes that Billy and Warren have, come to realize it is they who are subsidizing their works of charity for which only Warren and Billy receive so much adulation”. When Mr. Buffett puts a chunk of his multi, multi-million dollar annual income into a charitable endeavor and takes a tax credit, it’s the average tax payer (emphasize the shrinking group who actually “pays” taxes) who must make it up to fund the programs the government chooses to spend on. And, when or if Mr. Buffett passes on, those many millions of dollars the Gates Foundation will spend as it sees fit will not go to our government, which would thereby reduce the average taxpayer’s burden.
Finally, let us grant that octogenerian Warren Buffett has come to terms with his own mortality. That he seeks redemption from his new found savior…the Messiah, The One, as it were. It is now confirmed that adoption of the “Buffett Rule” will raise some $47 billion for our government, over the next ten years. Mr. Buffett’s personal wealth is commonly estimated at around $50 billion. What a marvelous gesture it would be if the Oracle of Omaha, who has long regretted that he’s never paid enough taxes, and, thus built his vast fortune, at least in large part, on those unpaid taxes, would simply hand it all over to the government he so fervently honors (well, maybe all but a billion or so, enough to meet Warren’s day-to-day needs).
Oh…and think what a windfall for President Obama if Mr. Buffett would just drop his dispute with the government and pay the $1 billion it says he owes. Think of that…that would be enough to build a giant circus tent to house Occupy Wall Streeters. They could could advertise “whimsical acts performed inside, dailly.” One suspects that the QC Times would pitch in to help such a fine cultural experience.
Hallelulia! Praise be to St. Warren! DLH
