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Warren Buffett Says Congress Will Be Obama’s Biggest Obstacle During Second Term

Jan 21, 2013
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Mr. Warren Buffett believes he understands the biggest challenge that President Obama will face during his second term, and that challenge is Congress.

Even though the Oracle of Omaha believes that Congress will present Obama with his biggest problem during his second term, he also believes that the United States will overcome the poor decision-making of lawmakers.

“What is right about America just totally dwarfs what’s wrong with Washington,” said Buffett in a recent interview on CBS News.

The billionaire investor has regularly criticized lawmakers during his career. Throughout the entire fiscal cliff debate, Buffett strongly recommended that Republicans “put country before party” in an effort to come to an agreement that would prevent $1.2 trillion in automatic spending hikes and tax cuts. They managed to avert the fiscal cliff, but President Obama and Congress didn’t come to an agreement until the 11th hour.

During 2011, Warren Buffett made an effort to influence Washington with a proposal where the ultra rich Americans would be required to pay a much higher tax rate than the American middle class. The plan was dubbed “the Buffett Rule” and the Senate ultimately didn’t agree with this plan.

Buffett recently spoke about another major issue that Washington is facing during his interview with CBS. The issue was the national debt. The leaders of the Republican Party believe that we should only raise the debt ceiling if an effort is made to reduce the debt through major cuts in spending. If Congress doesn’t do anything, the US can potentially lose its ability to meet its financial obligations during the middle of February, which we learned from our report by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“It is not a good thing to have it going up in relation to GDP,” mentions Buffett in an interview. “The debt itself is not a problem.”

According To Buffett, Women In Leadership Will Save The US Economy

Dec 31, 2012
by Kelly Scott in warren buffett with No Comments

Warren Buffett holds a firm belief that women are going to save the US economy.

He recently gave an interview with Melinda Gates on BBC, where the 82-year-old billionaire reiterated that he’s very optimistic that the US is going to survive the fiscal cliff, and that the talents of many women are being underutilized, but when they are used they will help right the economy and America will again thrive.

“Fifty per cent of the talent in the country, we’ve pushed off in the corner for almost 200 years,” said Buffett. “Now that we’re . . . starting to use 100 per cent of our talent, it makes me very optimistic.”

Mister Buffett also added that the US was not quite where it needs to be as far as gender equality is concerned, but there have been incredible gains since he was a little boy with his two sisters during the 1930s.

“The hope was that they would marry well. The hope with me was that I would fulfill my potential, whatever it might be,” Buffett said.

“I saw two human beings with enormous potential and it was just assumed that they could be a nurse, they could be a secretary, they could be a flight attendant . . . What a waste of human talent.”

Melinda Gates is also an advocate of women’s rights, as well as a philanthropist, where she interviewed Warren Buffett as a guest editor on the radio program from the BBC called Today. Warren Buffett is the third richest man in the world, and has also supported an initiative for global access to contraception.

“Women have been subjugated for time immemorial and only recently have they started achieving control over their bodies,” he said. “I think it’s enormously important that a woman have a real say in family planning.”

The Oracle of Omaha, a very wealthy investor as you all know, reiterated that he is confident that a deal would be made with all of the US legislators to avoid the “fiscal cliff” crisis.

“Each party would like to have any decrease in expenditures or increase in taxes blamed on the other party . . . In the end, 535 people in Washington will not thwart the wishes of 312 million Americans.”

He then tells us that the United States has more money than it has ever had, with a GDP per capita of nearly $50,000, but the country has undertaxed and overpromised.

“We’ll be able to overcome this problem. America’s faced a lot tougher problems than this one and we’ll get it solved.”

Buffett Knows Congress Will Eventually Pass A Fiscal Plan

Nov 28, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor, mentioned this past Wednesday that he’s really confident in Congress’s ability to eventually pass a plan that will address the upcoming fiscal cliff, even if that plan doesn’t come to fruition until earlier next year.

Warren Buffett also mentioned that the current debate over the upcoming automatic tax increases and cuts in spending that will take effect on January 1 aren’t going to affect his investment decisions at all.

“The fiscal cliff has nothing to do with long-term investment decisions,” said Buffett during his interview on CNBC.

Buffett believes that Congress will eventually put together a plan that makes perfect sense, whether it happens prior to the spending cuts and tax increases or not.

“I think there will be a lot of pressure if they don’t get an agreement by December 31,” said Buffett.

Buffett made an appearance this past Wednesday on CNBC with Carol Loomis. This appearance was to discuss her new book highlighting his career called “Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practicing Everything, 1966-2012.” The duo made a few different guest appearances together this week promoting the upcoming launch of the new book.

Buffett was also in the headlines earlier this week when he repeated his call for higher taxes, which was published in an opinion article in The New York Times. During his CNBC interview this past Wednesday, he mentioned that President Obama liked his article when he spoke with him on the phone this past Saturday. The two men didn’t talk about their difference in opinion over whose taxes should be increased.

Buffett reiterated that he is fully supporting Obama’s proposal to put an end to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. He also says that he’d like to set the tax increase at $500,000 income instead of the $250,000 income suggested by President Obama. He also mentioned that Congress should place a minimum tax of 30% on any income between the amounts of $1 million and $10 million, and if the income is higher than that, then a 35% rate should be implemented.

Buffett also made mention that Congress needs to consider raising corporate taxes as well. He mentioned that 30 or 40 years ago, American businesses paid taxes that roughly equaled 4% of the nations GDP. If you compare that to last year’s corporate taxes, it only represents about 1.5% of US gross domestic product.

“Corporate taxes have not been a problem for corporate America,” said Buffett.

Buffett also spoke about the structure of his own company, since they are a worldwide conglomerate… where he rejects the idea that it is set up to reduce the amount of taxes paid by Berkshire Hathaway. He tells us that Berkshire Hathaway, and all of the subsidiaries of his company, pay the regular rate of taxes on all of their profits.

Berkshire Hathaway owns over 80 companies. Some of the companies are railroads, jewelry, manufacturing, apparel, restaurant, utility and furniture companies. All in all, the utility and insurance businesses typically make up more than 50% of the overall income that Berkshire Hathaway produces.

The Oracle Of Omaha Says Fiscal Cliff Won’t Cripple The Economy

Nov 20, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Are you nervous about the fiscal cliff? Everybody’s favorite billionaire Warren Buffett isn’t worried at all.

Even though we have reports from the Congressional Budget Office showing that the fiscal cliff – over $600 billion in automatic tax increases, plus cuts in spending that begin on January 1, 2013 – is bound to send the US right into another recession with a much larger increase in unemployment, Warren Buffett has a different opinion on the matter.

Here’s a quote from a Warren Buffett interview with CNN:

“if we go past January 1st, I don’t know if it will be January 10th, or February 1st, but were not going to permanently cripple ourselves because 535 people can get along.

Also, Mister Buffett feels that President Obama is justified in going after $1.6 trillion in revenue.

“We need $1.6 trillion. We need to get our revenue up to about 19% of GDP, and we need to get our expenses down to 21% or 21.5% of GDP. Everyone knows that. So it’s going to take significant action on both sides. And $1.6 trillion happens to be one percent of GDP, we’ll need that much revenue, and we’ll need to cut expenditures significantly too.”

Warren Buffett also points out that the Congressional divide is the main reason why we are experiencing setbacks. The Republican led house specifically needs to begin to cooperate.

Warren Buffett says:

“It really depends very much on the Republicans in Congress. It doesn’t take the whole group in Congress to avoid that. I mean if 25 Republicans decide that they’ll put country above party and sign up for something that makes sense then we don’t need to go over the fiscal cliff.”

He also believes that the economy is going to stay strong regardless of what happens:

“We had Hurricane Sandy which disrupted the economy for a period, we had Katrina many years ago, we have things that will disrupt the economy, I mean 9/11 was an extraordinary case but we have a very resilient economy. We’ve had one for hundreds of years and the fact that they can’t get along for a month of January is not something that’s going to torpedo the economy.”

So there you go. Will history prevail, and prove Warren Buffett right once again? Only time will tell.

Warren Buffett Talks Fiscal Cliff: GOP Must Put ‘Country Over Party’

Nov 16, 2012
by Kelly Scott in berkshire hathaway // warren buffett with No Comments

Don’t worry. Even though there is lots of hysteria revolved around the fiscal cliff in the United States of America, the Oracle of Omaha tells us that we as a nation have nothing to fear.

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and billionaire philanthropist, is the man who goes by the moniker the “Oracle of Omaha” because of his excellent investing prowess. He tells us that no matter which way the fiscal cliff debate goes, Americans will not “permanently cripple ourselves.” With that being said, we’d be much better off if Congress were united, especially the Republican representatives, he tells CNNMoney.

“If 25 Republicans put country before party we won’t go over the fiscal cliff,” he mentions in an interview with CNNMoney.

Buffett also added that even if the lawmakers end up in gridlock, he doubts it will last very long or cause too much damage.

“[If Congress] can’t get along for the month of January, it’s not going to torpedo the economy.”

It’s not in Warren Buffett’s nature to fear making his views known on issues that are very similar. He’s done it quite often in the past. While the debt ceiling debate was going on last year, as an example, Buffett told us that the Republican-controlled Congress was “going to blow your brains out” by not raising the debt ceiling any higher. He also mentioned that not raising the debt ceiling could certainly be the “most asinine act” in the history of Congress.

This time, there are other economists making very similar statements to Warren Buffett. Larry Summers warns us that the fiscal cliff should not “become a license for terror.” In the meantime, New York Times columnist and Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is accusing the GOP of “holding America hostage” by demanding that Bush era tax cuts continue to protect the wealthy.

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