Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Buffett Rule

With apologies to Jimmy.

I could support a Buffett Rule that lowers my tax rate(1) to the level of Warren Buffett's. It's all about fairness, right?

That's not what I really want. The tax code is four times the length of the complete works of Shakespeare. We need to pick a level of spending that is constitutionally justifiable, and write a tax code that fits on one side of an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, single spaced 12 point type. That level needs to be well below 15% of GNP.

(1) I understand that the rate under discussion is the capital gains rate, and does not include the corporate taxes already paid on the profitability of Buffett's investments.

1 comment:

philmon said...

Yup. It underscores what they're really about.

"We're gonna give you stuff. And we're gonna make *them* pay".

It's never about how much we're spending. We're apparently never spending enough. No, the problem to them is not the deficit at all. Which is why they haven't passed a budget in over 3 years.

The problem, you see is, where do we get more money so we can keep giving people stuff. That doesn't belong to us. Or them. That's their question. Where can we extort more money without hurting our chances of re-election? Not "are we spending too much?" Never. Ever ... that.