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Over the weekend, Warren Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, made a powerful case to raise taxes on himself and those like him who enjoy enormous wealth. He noted, among other things, that he has a lower tax burden, as a percentage of his income, than anyone in his office. Millionaires and billionaires, Buffett said, “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”
President Obama twice cited Buffett’s op-ed yesterday to bolster the White House line. The right, apparently, was less impressed. Here’s Fox News’ Eric Bolling on the air yesterday:
“Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed in the New York Times today, he said we should be, I think you mentioned it earlier, we should be taxed more. What is this? Is he completely a socialist and he’s playing into Mr. Obama’s hands of, you know, tax anyone who makes money, give it to people who don’t work?”
Got that? Asking millionaires and billionaires to pay just a little more — going back to, say, the same rates they paid in the 1990s, when the economy soared — is evidence of being “completely a socialist.” Indeed, as Bolling sees it, asking the wealthy to sacrifice is necessarily part of an agenda to give money “to people who don’t work.”
Also remember, Buffett is one of America’s wealthiest people, and is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.”Completely a socialist”?
Why do Fox News viewers seem so terribly confused? In part because they rely on guys like Bolling to help them make sense of current events.
Mitt Romney also rejected the Buffett line, arguing yesterday, Look, “I know there are some who say “let’s just tax the rich.” Let’s raise the taxes on the rich…. If we raise taxes on wealthy people, that means businesses see their taxes go up. I don’t want to raise taxes on employers.”
Pat Garofalo explained how very wrong this.
As we’ve noted over and over again, during both the 2008 and 2010 tax debates, raising taxes on the rich will have little effect on small businesses. Fewer than 2 percent of small businesses owners make more than $250,000, never mind the $1 million level, at which Buffett is advocating a tax increase. Far more small businesses (14 percent) claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is only available to low-income workers.
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Lifelong Dem on August 16, 2011 10:57 AM:
FoxNews is the only media organization in the world that would ever call Warren Buffett a socialist. He's made billions running an investment firm, which is exactly what Karl Marx had in mind when he called for the workers of the world to unite. Jeebus.
Yes, you really can fool some of the people all the damn time.
Trollop on August 16, 2011 10:59 AM:
I say eviscerate the rich, or is that too capitalist?
slappy magoo on August 16, 2011 10:59 AM:
One of the many things that bother me when it comes to horsecrap like this, is that sane minds have to take the time to explain that it's hrosecrap to people who desperately want to believe the horsecrap. Why aren't we just saying "that's a load of horsecrap and only anti-American douch hats would believe it?" Apparently, "real Americans" believe things if you say them forcefully, regardless of whether or not they're true. It's Fox's bread and butter. So rather than try to prove we're right, just be comfortable with the idea of knowing we're right, and say "that's a load of horsecrap, they're wrong, we're right, we'd be happy to debate it, but they're too scared of us to have a legitimate debate, so ignore them, they're idiots and they're wrong, case closed, next topic."
it won't shut them up, but it may take the focus away from them, which makes what they say, by default, quieter.
c u n d gulag on August 16, 2011 11:02 AM:
The Republicans sing:
"Buffett and Soros
Sitting in a tree.
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love,
Then comes ...
Godless heathen atheist Socialist/Comminist/Fascism, determined to take money from working white people to give it to lazy, shiftless black and brown ones!!!
Ok, it doesn't rhymn, but you can still dance to it.
Does this mean that Buffett has to hand in his esteemed and honorable "American Order of the Job Creator" medal?
CDW on August 16, 2011 11:02 AM:
Romney: "If we raise taxes on wealthy people, that means businesses see their taxes go up. I don�t want to raise taxes on employers.�
Because corporations are people, too.
rbe1 on August 16, 2011 11:07 AM:
Well actually Eric Bolling flat out lied. That's how people watching Fox are mislead. Bolling stated that Buffett said "we" should be taxed more, unless of course, this idiot from Fox is a billionaire. This I doubt.
Danp on August 16, 2011 11:09 AM:
Meanwhile, Pat Buchanan thinks wealthy should just donate more money to the government, IF they want to.
Josef K on August 16, 2011 11:13 AM:
Does Eric Bolling even know what "socialist" means? I have to wonder if his parents didn't take the family name seriously and used his head as their ball.
neilt on August 16, 2011 11:16 AM:
How anyone can call Warren Freaking Buffett a socialist and not bust a gut laughing is beyond me.
There seems to be this concerted effort to revive "socialist" as an epithet - but the new definition bears no relation whatsoever to the *actual* definition.
DAY on August 16, 2011 11:29 AM:
I assume that giving money to people who don't work includes congress. . .
Chris on August 16, 2011 11:34 AM:
"Far more small businesses (14 percent) claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is only available to low-income workers."
I didn't know this. Another great opportunity to throw their nonsense back in their faces when the try to close or eliminate the EITC. "But you're raising taxes on small businesses."
DRF on August 16, 2011 11:37 AM:
Bolling's comment is too moronic to even attempt to refute.
Romney's comment only appears to be less idiotic. In fact, I would guess that most high income earners (e.g. over $ 1 Million per year) are not "employers" of significance--they are either employees of publicly traded companies or they run businesses such as hedge funds that don't employ large numbers of people.
In any event, increasing the tax rate by a few percentage points on high income owners of "small businesses" isn't going to discourage hiring new employees. Hiring decisions are much more a function of increased demand for goods or services. One doesn't fall into the high income earner category unless the "small business" is generating significant profits to start with.
You have to wonder whether Romney ever thinks through what he says, or if he just works off prepared bullet points.
Blue Girl on August 16, 2011 11:43 AM:
"...you know, tax anyone who makes money, give it to people who don’t work?”
Defense contractors and members of the military are lazy bums then? Because that's where over half the discretionary spending budget goes. Asshole.
SecularAnimist on August 16, 2011 11:46 AM:
For the brainwashed victims of Fox News -- who believe that the handful of giant corporations that own virtually all of the mass media in America are run by "liberals" pushing a "leftist agenda" -- it's not much of a stretch to believe that Warren Buffett is a "socialist".
jlt on August 16, 2011 11:50 AM:
What would or has been embraced by the repub baggers that supported people over corporations?
I can find nothing..
Joe Friday on August 16, 2011 12:10 PM:
The Top Tax Rate - A Little Historical Perspective:
http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=31671
Blue Girl on August 16, 2011 12:10 PM:
By the way, upthread, I wasn't defending defense contractors, or even Pentagon spending. Just pointing out where the money goes.
"inspin reflective" I dunno if that sounds like a new kind of Yoga or an 80s emo band...
zandru on August 16, 2011 12:37 PM:
slappy magoo makes a good point about the difficulty/impossibility of convincing the Foxazoids who really want to believe the lies FNC tells them.
But! These sad, deluded folks are still in the minority. There are plenty of other Americans who really want to know what's going on, who have some experience with reality and are still searching for news coverage that fits in with their day to day experiences.
In short, there's still a market - a vast, underserved market, might I add - for The Truth. Those who can provide it, whether they be MSNBC, NPR, or YOU, dear friends, will not only gain a hearing, but you may also gain a convert.
Kathryn on August 16, 2011 12:41 PM:
Good point by Slappy Magoo. Wouldn't it be nice if 100 or so of fellow rich people who Warren Buffet referenced as willing to pay more taxes would take out an ad in New York Times with all their names in print or something like that. If a large group of the the top 400 would support Buffet by publishing their names, we might get somewhere. Can't see it happening. Meanwhile, I'll just start telling anybody I run into who believes FOX propaganda that it's a load of crap as suggested by Slappy and I'll say it forcefully.
Grumpy on August 16, 2011 12:53 PM:
DRF: ...most high income earners (e.g. over $ 1 Million per year) are not "employers" of significance--they are either employees of publicly traded companies or they run businesses such as hedge funds that don't employ large numbers of people.
That's what I don't understand about Romney's comment. Million-dollar incomes are income, not revenue that can be converted into wages for employees. (Except, I suppose, for the small businesses that Pat Garofalo addresses.) Except for some broad interpretation of the trickle-down theory (which applies equally when it's unemployment insurance that trickles down), Romney is talking out of his gold-plated ass.
Grumpy on August 16, 2011 12:55 PM:
P.S. "gold-plated ass" was not intended as an anti-Mormon slur.
FlipYrWhig on August 16, 2011 1:15 PM:
I hate this canard that rich people are "employers," or "job creators," and as such increasing their taxes impedes their ability to hire. It seems to presume that there's a wide swath of the economy in which people are hired into household service. Unless your job is "butler" or "valet," that's not the way your working life was set up.
Mike on August 16, 2011 1:16 PM:
Steve -
When are you going to learn that people like Eric Bolling don't say things on Fox News like calling Warren Buffett a socialist to constructively add to the debate. They say it so that people like ... well ... you will write about it, thus giving more free publicity to people like Eric Bolling and Fox News. It's really a waste to spend your perfectly good outrage on Fox News tabloid journalism.
Liz D on August 16, 2011 5:30 PM:
If we continue to placate to the rich, cut services for the poor and elderly, we too will have epic rioting in the United States. What's happening in the U.K. is crazy, and it's definitely the have-nots disrupting the haves. So we either acknowledge that the richest of us can "tow the line" or the poorest of us will tow them under...
exlibra on August 16, 2011 7:31 PM:
Also remember, Buffett is one of America’s wealthiest people, and is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.”Completely a socialist”? -- Steve Benen
Karl Marx came from a rich family. Vladimir Lenin's, while not rich, was noble (first generation, though). One might have thought those two would be the last to rail against bloodsuckers - aristocratic, manufacturing or theocratic. But, there they were, traitors to their class :)
"Woryour eyes", says Craptcha. Our ears are pretty worried, too; it's all that exposure to Faux.
jim on August 16, 2011 10:01 PM:
If this country has a future (questionable with all the crap happening these days), students will read in their history class about this political stupidity by the right and wonder how the USA survived. It's difficult to be an optimist these days.
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Gov't Mule on August 17, 2011 10:18 AM:
How stupid is Eric Bolling? For that matter, how dumb are all of Faux Noise Chunnel's on-air talent? Do they even know what socialism is?
I would just love to see once a MSM commentator actually ask one of these wingnuts on air to define socialism.
Flaming Liberal on August 18, 2011 11:28 AM:
Well, color me SHOCKED that the teabagging Greedy Old Party is having a major league hissy fit over this! How dare that Islamofacisttreasonousfeminaziantiamurkunsocialistmarxist Buffet make such a statement! Tar him and feather him, and flog him in the public square I say!!
While FAUXNewz may have the ratings, its viewers are consistently the most ill-informed segment of the population ... go figure.