Buffett calls Obamacare replacement 'a huge tax cut for guys like me'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Sat May 6, 2017 | 7:09pm EDT
By Trevor Hunnicutt


May 6 Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett on Saturday fumed that healthcare costs are eating away at the U.S. economy like "tapeworm" and said the Republican approach to overhaul Obamacare is a tax cut for the rich.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly approved a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, a victory for Republican President Donald Trump who has called the 2010 law a "disaster."

Speaking at Berkshire's annual shareholders' meeting in Omaha, Buffett said his federal income taxes last year would have gone down 17 percent had the new law been in effect.

"So it is a huge tax cut for guys like me," he said. "And when there's a tax cut, either the deficit goes up or they get the taxes from somebody else."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/berkshire-buffett-healthcare-idUSL1N1I80MA

[C Moon]

1. The class war in full. The rich know they are fighting, but the poor and middleclass have no idea.

[joshdawg]

3. And yet, the poor and middle class still vote republican.

Go figure.

[CakeGrrl]

12. Those are the ones programmed by Rush et al

Their mindset?

'These lazy welfare blacks are living off my hard-earned [white working class] tax dollars, eating lobster with food stamps and using their free Obamaphones!'

Logic be damned. This is what they WANT to believe, so they do.

As Malcolm X said:
If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

[Igel]

13. Yes, repealing the ACA Medicare surcharge would help the rich.

Then again, it was a tax that targeted only the rich, which some at the time considered a victory in a class war. Hardly likely that repealing it would provide a tax decrease to anybody else.

Buffet told us that his effective tax rate is around 21-22%, which some find outrageous because their tax rate, they think, is 35 or 38%. The rich pay much lower tax rates than many of us.

My household's effective tax rate last year was under 6%. Including Medicare, perhaps 8.5%. It doesn't include FICA (I don't pay it), but my state pension charges about the same amount. Putting me a whole -8% or so above that absurdly low rate of 22%. Household income's over $100k (not that much higher) and we have one dependent. If you make less or have more kids, you'd pay less.

Minus that 3% or so, his tax rate would only be -5% higher than me. Yet most think he pays a lower percentage.


Most poor and middle-class people don't calculate their effective tax rate. It makes that particular kind of judgment easier.

[burrowowl]

2. Will he put his money

where his mouth is?

[joshdawg]

4. He probably will.

Buffet is one of the rich "good" guys.
just sayin'

[OnDoutside]

5. Warren Buffet has signed up to give ALL his money away.

I just wish he would divert a few billion to trying to turn red back to blue.

[CrispyQ]

11. I wish he'd buy some radio stations with liberal hosts & programming.

Take a loss if you have to, but start fighting the right wing message that blankets entire swaths of our country.

[OnDoutside]

14. Yes I agree with you, it needs to be done. How else can the message get out there ?

[democratisphere]

6. They're coming to take away ALL of everyone's disposable income to render

US penniless and powerless.

[Achilleaze]

7. 'Obamacare replacement' ChumpCare (R)

c'mon Reuters, call it what it is...

[lordsummerisle]

8. k&r n/t

[Honeycombe8]

9. It's a HEALTHCARE bill, but it cuts taxes for the super wealthy. Buffett's taxes go down 17%...

under the GOP House healthcare bill that passed, he said.

This is outrageous.

[JudyM]

10. Welcome to rethug "tax reform."