WARREN BUFFETT: Here's The Thing Grover Norquist Doesn't Understand

[NJMaverick]

Warren Buffett is out with a NYT op-ed calling for a minimum tax on the rich.

We'll get to his specifics in a second, but the part that will get the most attention is his intro, where he calls out Grover Norquist, the powerful activist who gets Republicans who "pledge" that they'll never raise taxes.
Buffett writes:

SUPPOSE that an investor you admire and trust comes to you with an investment idea. “This is a good one,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m in it, and I think you should be, too.”
Would your reply possibly be this? “Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you’re saying we’re going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent.” Only in Grover Norquist’s imagination does such a response exist.

With the fiscal cliff debate heating up, criticism of Grover Norquist and his influence is growing louder.

A Minimum Tax for the Wealthy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/opinio...althy.html

SUPPOSE that an investor you admire and trust comes to you with an investment idea. “This is a good one,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m in it, and I think you should be, too.”

Would your reply possibly be this? “Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you’re saying we’re going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent.” Only in Grover Norquist’s imagination does such a response exist.

Between 1951 and 1954, when the capital gains rate was 25 percent and marginal rates on dividends reached 91 percent in extreme cases, I sold securities and did pretty well. In the years from 1956 to 1969, the top marginal rate fell modestly, but was still a lofty 70 percent — and the tax rate on capital gains inched up to 27.5 percent. I was managing funds for investors then. Never did anyone mention taxes as a reason to forgo an investment opportunity that I offered.

Under those burdensome rates, moreover, both employment and the gross domestic product (a measure of the nation’s economic output) increased at a rapid clip. The middle class and the rich alike gained ground.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-bu...z2DK9fK4Dc

[janedrake]

That's a great op-ed; what's fairly amusing is the number of "from the peanut gallery" posts in the comments section that miscomprehend the nature of the tax rate discussion, yet feel perfectly comfuortable lecturing Warren Buffett on how he "doesn't understand how business works." LOL