E.J. Dionne Jr., a left-leaning columnist for The Washington Post, published an opinion on September 28 about and also titled, Why conservatives hate Warren Buffett. So, why do they? “He has forced a national conversation on (1) the bias of the tax system against labor; (2) the fact that, in comparison with middle- or upper-middle-class people, the really wealthy pay a remarkably low percentage of their income in taxes.”
Many millionaires and billionaires that are making their fortunes off of capital gains are being taxed at only 15 %, while the lowest earning laborers being taxed at that same rate and earn between $8,500 and $34,500 annually. If someone makes more than $34,500, their marginal rates being paid are more than a multimillionaire pays on gains from investments. Makes sense, right? Um, not really. Buffett is one of the few billionaires that will openly share his beliefs that the tax system in the U.S. is unfair. He has stated in the past that he paid 19% in taxes and his employees that make a significant amount less than him paid 33%.
I believe this opinion was published to reinforce what the more liberal Americans have been arguing about taxes. And hopefully some more right-leaning Americans will stumble upon this read and maybe take a second look at how our tax system is set up. Dionne states that "it is common sense, not class jealousy, to ask the most fortunate to pay taxes at higher tax rates than other people do". I couldn’t agree more.
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