Published at TownHall on 12/4/12
By Wayne Allyn Root
I’m a small businessman who believes we are all over-taxed. I would not raise anyone’s taxes. But since Obama’s pet billionaires like Warren Buffett are so quick to sell out the upper middle class…two can play at that game! Obama has the GOP Congress between a rock and a hard place. Here’s a compromise that turns the tables on Obama.
I say it’s time to sacrifice the billionaires to save small business…and the GOP.
Let’s start with the Warren Buffett story. Buffett is a complete phony, a con man. He’s the biggest tax avoider in America, yet he tries to portray himself as a “fair and generous man” who gladly wants to pay more taxes. It’s time to call his bluff.
Buffett and his best friend Obama have played a con game on the American people for too long. A Washington D.C. version of Three-Card-Monte, they misdirect, distract, and divide with class warfare. The truth is the “Top 2%” they are so keen on taxing isn’t made up of billionaires with yachts and private planes. It’s mostly a bunch of hard-working small business owners (like me) who have no money to spare.
Buffett is a world-class phony and hypocrite. Buffett or any other billionaire liberal can voluntarily pay 35% tax rates (or higher) any time they want. Why not 50%? Or 90%? Billionaires don’t need the money, or so says Buffett. If he’s so keen on paying more taxes than his secretary, why does he choose to pay her with income that will be taxed at higher rates, and yet convert all his income to capital gains, so he pays the smallest amount? What a hypocrite!
Are you aware Buffett is in a BIILLION dollar tax fight with the IRS? Yes, for years Buffett has paid the best tax lawyers money can buy to not pay a billion dollars one of his companies owes the United States. If you’re rich, generous and intent on paying more, why not just pay what you owe?
The reason, of course, is because Buffett doesn’t intend to pay more. He wants you and me to pay more. His accountants and lawyers will keep his taxes low or nonexistent. High income tax rates are another way billionaires, like Buffet, who don’t live off their income, increase their advantage over small businessmen like me who can only compete with them by investing what we have left after we pay our taxes.
Oh, by the way, did you know Buffett’s father was a well-connected Congressman? He’s had a silver spoon in his mouth and gold-plated connections since the day he was born. He couldn’t care less about you and me. He cares only about the next sweetheart deal he can get from Obama. See: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/buffett-s-burlington-northern-among-winners-in-obama-rejection-of-pipeline.html
Small businessmen like me don’t get sweetheart deals from government. We have no teams of lobbyists or lawyers on call. We need our earnings- DESPERATELY. We use our earnings to pay our employees, support our families, pay for our children’s college educations, and provide for our retirement (small business owners have no pensions). But most importantly, small business owners need our money to start and expand our businesses…or, in this horrible Obama economy, save them. Take more of our money with higher taxes and we won’t be able to pay for our employees’ health insurance, make payroll, or keep our doors open in a crisis. And we’ll never be able to retire. Is that fair?
Mr. Buffett, please stop lying. Stop lumping us into your group. An income of $250,000 to $500,000 is hardly rich and we need our money. Billionaires like you don’t create jobs. 75% or more of new jobs are created by small business. How dare Buffett and Obama play a con game saying “The rich don’t need the extra money.” That’s a big fat Pinocchio-like lie.
Here’s another big fat lie. When Democrats quote 80% tax rates of yesteryear to make today’s top rate of 35% seem “low” they are leaving out all kinds of facts. On Wall Street omitting facts is called fraud.
First, that high rate of yesteryear only applied to the obscenely wealthy, not small business. FDR’s 79% top rate applied to only one billionaire in the whole country and that rate kicked in only at an income of almost $100 million (in today’s dollars). Did you ever hear Obama say that?
Second, deductions were much higher in those days, so the higher rate was grossly misleading. Third, it was primarily a cash economy where the tax rate was meaningless because few ever paid it. The fact is those 80% (or higher) tax rates only applied to billionaire industrialists (like big mouth hypocrite Warren Buffett).
Buffett and Obama are trying to divide the GOP, force them to sacrifice small business, or be painted as “the party of the rich.” The GOP should break that strange-hold by positioning itself as the protectors of small business. The sweet spot where all the jobs are created is small business owners earning $250,000 to $500,000. To prevent a collapse of the U.S. economy the GOP needs to become the courageous fighter for small business.
Let’s give Buffett a taste of his own medicine. Forget the super rich and the corporate CEO’s. They supported Obama and claim to want to pay more taxes- so let them. The GOP should propose a deal to raise tax rates starting at $5 million, $10 million, and $20 million per year. Add a special tax increase (a huge one) to incomes over $100 million per year. Hit Buffett where it hurts. Let’s see if the old hypocritical geezer agrees to that one. I’m betting he blows a gasket.
In return for sacrificing the truly rich, the GOP should demand Democrats give a minimum of 3 to 1 in spending cuts. If Obama won’t do that deal, then he proves he’sthe enemy of small business, he’s the protector of fat cat billionaires, and he has no interest in reducing the debt. If that’s the case, the GOP should walk away, let Obama send economy off the fiscal cliff, and allow Obama to take 100% of the blame. It’s his economy. Let him own it.
Oh and he can keep Warren Buffett too.
Wayne Allyn Root is a Capitalist Evangelist, entrepreneur, and Tea Party Republican. He is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He is the best-selling author of “The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts.” His web site: www.ROOTforAmerica.com
