warren buffett

E.J. Dionne has a great piece today talking about the Buffett tax plan. Conservatives have been on a constant attack against Warren Buffett over his claims that his tax rate is to low. Of course all the focus has been on Buffet, but there are other’s in Buffett’s tax bracket that feel the same:

Advocates of higher taxes on the wealthy do not want to “punish” the successful. Buffett and Doug Edwards, a millionaire who asked Obama at a recent town hall event in California to raise his taxes, are saying that none of us succeeds solely because of personal effort. We are all lucky to have been born in — or, for immigrants, admitted to — a country where the rule of law is strong, where property is safe, where a vast infrastructure has been built over generations, where our colleges and universities are the envy of the world, and where government protects our liberties.

That is what I have been talking about. The rich got that way because of America, so paying taxes and contributing to help get America moving forward again is the least they can do for the country that made them. The problem is the right wing noise machine. I’ve got many Republican friends who make less than $100,000 a year and yet feel taxes should continue to be cut on the rich. Most of them listen to people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Of course these talking heads will rally against raising taxes on the rich. Just look at their 2010 salaries:

Really. Just look at the news yesterday. First off the dollar hit a record low. That occurred on the same day that oil hit a record high of $98.00 a barrel (and expected to go past the $100 mark today). This sounds bad, but if you ask anyone in the administration they will tell you that the economy is doing great.

There was an even bigger indicator yesterday that the economy has hit a massive slump. That came in the form of local tax levies. Here is southwestern Ohio there were numerous tax levies on the ballot for things such as schools, fire protection and jails. In the greater Cincinnati area there were well over 50 of these levies on ballots in different towns and counties. Almost every single one of the failed.

When local news was reporting on this, there seemed to be a consensuses. People weren't being mean and not wanting to support local services. Instead they all blamed one common thing - the economy. They just don't have the money to improve their schools or public services.

Remember - this is a product of great Republican economic lessons. Remember Reagan's "trickle down" theory? Yeah - we basically have that in play without the cute name. Of course it took Bill Clinton to undue all that and get the economy on the right track again, only to have Republicans try and credit the success on Reaganomics. I am sure the same will happen again if a Democrat takes the White House next year and turns the economy around.