Warren Buffett Knows Less Government Means More Economic Activity

• by Seton Motley

Remember the “Buffet Rule?”

The Buffett Rule is part of a tax plan proposed by President Barack Obama in 2011.  The tax plan would apply a minimum tax rate of 30 percent on individuals making more than a million dollars a year.

Remember for whom it’s named?

The Buffett Rule is named after American investor Warren Buffett, who publicly stated in early 2011 that he believed it was wrong that rich people, like himself, could pay less in federal taxes, as a portion of income, than the middle class, and voiced support for increased income taxes on the wealthy.

 
Remember what Buffett 2012 said – in his New York Times editorial?

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.”

But he has to know that potential investors do exactly that all the time.

Untaxed US Corporate Profits Held Overseas Top $2.1 Trillion

Foreign profits held overseas by U.S. corporations to avoid taxes at home nearly doubled from 2008 to 2013 to top $2.1 trillion, said a private research firm’s report….

Well, flash forward to Warren Buffett 2014.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is expected to help finance Burger King’s pending acquisition of Canadian doughnut-chain Tim Hortons.

The deal will allow Miami-based Burger King to claim Canada as its new legal home for tax purposes….

And why is Canada a more favorable tax locale than the U.S.?  Because everywhere on the planet is.

U.S. Corporate Tax Rates Are the Highest in the Developed World

Buffett’s corporate tax move is called an “inversion.”

Tax inversion, or corporate inversion, is the relocation of a corporation’s headquarters to a lower-tax nation, or corporate haven, usually whilst retaining its material operations in its higher-tax country of origin.

Does Buffett 2014 know this?  He’s not a dumb guy.  But here’s your Joke of the Day: He ludicrously claims:

…(T)he deal was not about taxes, saying that the combined company would be based in Canada because of Tim Hortons’ “strong roots” north of the border.

Of course in May Buffett said:

“I will not pay a dime more of individual taxes than I owe, and I won’t pay a dime more of corporate taxes than we owe. And that’s very simple.”

Indeed it is very simple.  And you can’t blame Buffett 2014 for the sentiment.  But you may certainly blame Buffett 2012 for his contradictory sentiment – and for wishing to impose its inanity upon us all.
So the Buffett Rule fails the Reality Test – per Buffett his own self.  Just as do all the Left’s attempts at reverse engineering the economy and human nature.
This is just and yet another example of (at least) a couple of empirical facts.

1) The greater the government involvement in the marketplace – the more warped and damaged the marketplace becomes.

2) The private sector’s wealthiest members will always outsmart, outpace and outdistance whatever the oft-talentless government hacks try to throw at them.

The government damage is instead done to those who can least afford to absorb it.
The Buffetts already have theirs.  But the tens of millions of Americans looking for work and new opportunities desperately need the Buffetts parking their $2.1 trillion overseas to bring it on home.
And until the government makes it more attractive to do so – those tens of millions of Americans will continue to suffer.
While the Buffetts jet set – and Buffett Rule champion President Obama golfs.