Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are vying for the affections of legendary investor Warren Buffett, as the economy eclipses Iraq as a key election issue.
Mr. Buffett has said he won’t endorse a candidate but that he is willing to throw his substantial fund-raising capabilities behind both Sens. Clinton and Obama.
“I told both of them that if they ran for president I’d support them, and here we are,” Mr. Buffett said after an event for Mrs. Clinton here yesterday.
The fund-raising “Conversation with Warren Buffett” drew over 1,500 people, including a mix of Silicon Valley executives such as John Doerr, a partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; philanthropist and founder of the Esprit clothing line Susie Tompkins Buell; and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Tickets ranged from $100 to more than $2,300, drawing in around $1 million, according to the Clinton campaign.
Buffett is an enjoyable speaker, immensely successful investor. He might bring some sense of priority and frugality to a new administration.
I think he still has the bicycle he used as a kid to earn money – delivering newspapers – for his first investments.
Mustardinniamenterro has it right, as he often does.
Another hoot is the bullshit about ‘family farms’ being sacrificed to the estate tax. In all of America, over – 17 years I think it is – exactly ONE farm was sold off to cover estate taxes.
Nothing like poormouthing on behalf of people with a shitload more money than you have, who couldn’t possibly care less what happens to you… maybe you’re like those tech reporters who lick Bill G’s ass in print, hoping he’ll send ’em a check. If so, I have bad news for all ‘o y’all. Ain’t gonna happen. Now get back to work.
Y’know, if you jokers expended one-tenth as much sympathy on the people WORSE off than you are, instead of the “suffering” of those far above you, we wouldn’t have poverty or homelessness in America.
But you pervertedly welcome your new plutocrat overlords.
Sick. And stupid. No wonder they have such contempt for the average person. They fuck you over and then convince you that they’re the ‘victims.’ Kee-rist.
Y’know, if you jokers expended one-tenth as much sympathy on the people WORSE off than you are, instead of the “suffering” of those far above you, we wouldn’t have poverty or homelessness in America.
I don’t care about the suffering of those above me. I care about the government taking what doesn’t belong to the government. We have more than enough evidence over the last 30 years that I’ve been paying attention that the government cannot manage money. My 8 year old daughter is better with money than the U.S. government. Why give them more, they’re just going to blow it down some pork infested rat hole….or spend it on flowers.
32->
So you keep a homeless man on your couch because he doesn’t have one?
Didn’t think so.
There are only two types of people in this country. The Haves and Have Nots.
The Have Nots want what the Haves have.
No matter what your social standing, there is always going to be something you want that you can’t have.
Now, there is a sect within the Have Nots called the Want Nots.
Don’t let them fool you.
They profess they don’t want what the Haves have but instead wish it to be spread around the Have Nots in the name of fariness. They will preach about the unfairness of life — how someone has more of something (looks, athletic ability, brains, money, etc) — and try to convince you that it should be shared with the Have Nots against the will of the Haves.
In reality, the Want Nots are closet Have Nots with a conscience. They really want some of what the Haves have, too, but realize that it’s not right to take it from someone without working for it.
Don’t let them fool you. They are just as jealous as the rest.
If they would just stand up and yell, “I’m Jealous and want it, too!” we would at least understand them and where they get this twisted sense of justice.
>>just keep imagining that no one pays the
>>estate tax or has to worry about it.
I know for a FACT that you don’t have to worry about it, son. You wouldn’t know three million dollars if it bit you on the ass, much less twenty or thirty million.
So. Don’t worry. Be happy. You have nothing to worry about!
I also know for a fact that people have lost their parents houses, worth well less than a million dollars because they couldn’t pay the tax note after their deaths. As I said, my mother was an estate planner for 30+ years. I’ve watched small family businesses have to be sold off to conglomerates because the old man who owned it died and the kids couldn’t pay the tax man to keep it. We had a corner store down the street from where I grew up. The family had run it for over 50 years. After the old man’s death, the family sold out to a conglomerate because they couldn’t pay 50% of it’s value to the government. The conglomerate then shut it down because it was competition in the neighborhood.
You can claim it doesn’t happen all you like. I’ve seen it happen, however.
>>I also know for a fact that people have lost
>>their parents houses, worth well less than a
>>million dollars because they couldn’t pay the
>>tax note after their deaths.
Well, either their parents had a whole shitload of valuable stuff, or they had a really shitty (read criminally negligent) estate planner or tax advisor.
Current law gives an automatic “unified credit” of two million dollars on the whole estate, not just the house, and there are a variety of ways to boost the tax-free amount significantly higher than that. So the first $2,000,000.00 is a freebie.
You can claim there’s not a two million dollar exemption all you like. I’ve used it, so I know it’s there.
Why should you have to go to an estate planner to begin with. 2 million sounds more likely the level, but a decade ago it was much lower, about 600 thousand.
>>Why should you have to go to an estate
>>planner to begin with.
You don’t. Any high-school grad at H&R block would know about the unified credit for your freebie two million. And if you’re really adventurous, the clerk at the Post Office can point you to the bin where they keep the forms.
In any case, it’s money for nothing, so what are you bitching about? If you’re cashing in on previously-untaxed capital gains over $2,000,000.00, you SHOULD pay tax on it, ya fucking cheapskate.
> If you’re cashing in on previously-untaxed
> capital gains over $2,000,000.00, you SHOULD
> pay tax on it,
No, he shouldn’t. Just because you feel that way doesn’t make it right.
Why do you feel that way? Where do you get this from? Help us understand!
> ya fucking cheapskate.
ouch.
When it comes to funding government, no form of taxation ever invented is satisfactory to everyone, so maybe it’s best to quit trying to apply irrelevant terms like “right” or “wrong” to the process. The last time we passed the plate for donations, the government wasn’t able to collect enough money, so they had to start taking what people didn’t really want to give up, and anyone taxed immediately saw how wrong it was.
When the outcry against taxes got too loud, our leaders simply pulled out America’s charge card and borrowed the extra money instead. One might even argue that borrowing as heavily as we have against the wealth of future generations is immoral, if one were allowed to use such irrelevant terminology.
I still see “family money” as the well-to-do version of an entitlement system, passing unearned money to people who usually don’t even need it.
>>No, he shouldn’t. Just because you feel
>>that way doesn’t make it right.
Well, I guess in a perfect world, nobody would pay ANY taxes, and the government would magically just supply services that individuals need but cannot provide for themselves.
Unfortunately, that’s not the world as we know it. So under the assumption that everybody (at least over a certain income level) should pay some taxes, it seems reasonable that trust-fund babies who inherit their money (>#2,000,000.00, of course; the first two mil is a freebie) should pay some taxes on their pot of gold. Especially considering that a lot of the wealth is usually in the form of unrealized capital gains, which have NEVER been taxed.
Seriously, I don’t know what the big deal is here. The estate tax affects so few people, and those people it does affect have so much money, it’s hard to imagine why there’s even a debate. Oh, I know…it’s because the “obscenely wealthy” (the only ones who would have some of their money tapped by taxing estates) carry a disproportionately big stick in national discussions. And, since they’ve been so successful at evading taxes on their regular money (aided and abetted by Dumbya and his No Millionaire Left Behind program of tax cuts), it’s only natural that they should should be upset that the money should be taxed when it comes to dropping golden eggs into the laps of Buffy and Kyle.