By Hugh J. Campbell
Philadelphia, Pa., son of a Steelworker
Better than most in the matters of money, Warren Buffett can identify the need for triage: the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. This shines through in his recent New York Times op-ed: “A Minimum Tax for the Wealthy” where his advise regarding the U.S. tax code is “the reform of such complexities should not promote delay in our correcting simple and expensive inequities. We can’t let those who want to protect the privileged get away with insisting that we do nothing until we can do everything.”
In his op-ed Buffet highlights one such expensive inequity that’s simple to correct as follows: “Above all, we should not postpone these changes in the name of “reforming” the tax code. True, changes are badly needed. We need to get rid of arrangements like “carried interest” that enable income from labor to be magically converted into capital gains. And it’s sickening that a Cayman Islands mail drop can be central to tax maneuvering by wealthy individuals and corporations.”
Who would have thought a revolution over “taxation without representation” would evolve after almost 240 years to greater representation for the benefit of corporations and their stockholders who pay less than their statutory federal income tax rate via the Supreme Court of the United States’ Citizens United decision? What’s next? If Grover Norquist, the Tax Pledge puppeteer had his way, “Representation Without Taxation,” multi-national and non-national corporations are almost there.
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Posted November 27, 2012 at 9:55 am, in Free Speech Zone
