Syndicated AM Radio talk show host from GA calls Warren Buffet "Big Fat Hypocrite"

I was listening today to a syndicated talk show host form Atlanta talking about the economy. One of his callers was a brave soul commenting about the dollar and the real reasons for its devaluation.

It’s important to mention that the talk show host has been pushing a book proposing a new tax scheme for the nation in place of our current tax code.

However, I don’t want to comment about his tax book, regardless of how "Fair" some people would consider it to be.

Back to my original point. The caller suggested that the current devaluation of the dollar wasn’t a direct result of our current tax code. He proceeded to indicate other contributing factors for the shrinking dollar such as the barrel of oil nearing 100.00 dollars and the rampant government over-spending.

Not only is the government spending more than ever, but it has also lowered taxes reducing some of its revenue. Although reporting record income for the same periods…(I wonder who ended up paying more to pickup the slack? More on gasoline, food, utilities, medical services, state & local taxes?).

The caller mentioned the recent comments maid by Warren Buffett regarding his "Administrating Assistant" paying the government 36% in taxes on her 60k income while he only paid around 17% taxes on his several Million dollars income for the same year.

Well, how dumb we all must be for not understanding the difference between "Taxable Income" and "Capital Gains". I’m so glad this thoughtful talk show host was so kind as to explain the terms for us.

It’s very simple, most of the people belonging to the lower and middle classes get paid for their work or service. Lets use for example Warren Buffett’s Administrative Assistant, she reported earnings of 60k dollars for this past year. Of that, she would have reported some deductions bringing her taxable income lower that the 60k originally reported. 36% of the taxable income went to the IRS.

Warren Buffett belongs to a smaller but very powerful group of individuals. They are more affluent and count with the means and resources to invest in the stock market, real state or any other business venture. Some if these investments yield return called Capitol Gain. This is obviously an oversimplified explanation of what could be a very dry and complex subject.

This type of income is taxed at a much lower rate than that of the Taxable Income. In Warren Buffett’s case, he reported paying only 17% on taxes for his 46 Million dollar Capital Gains income.

This disparity is caused by the current tax laws that allow a much higher tax rate to be imposed on an individual that earns less, leaving him almost with nothing at the end of the year wile allowing other more wealthy individuals to keep more of their already high income.

Having said that, it’s easier to comprehend how is it that a weaker dollar could hurt more the middle working class making less than 100k a year.

This is all done in the spirit of Reaganomics and the theory of "trickle down economics". Ronald Reagan thought that by helping the rich get richer, wealth would magically trickle down like fresh water from a mountain spring reaching everyone on its path, way down the river stream, I must add.

Ronald Reagan and all of his followers conveniently overlooked GREED as disabling factor for the purported wealth reaching the lower levels of Reagan’s pyramidal economical scheme. Conveniently I say, because great wealth is created. However, the current tax law causes this wealth to stay within the upper echelon of society; and 17% Tax bracket for the elite versus 36% Tax for oppressed Middle class won’t make things any better…

Of course, the talk show host didn’t eve get close to explaining any of this to us. He just repeated several times that the caller was comparing apples and oranges, just saying that Taxable Income was not the same as Capital Gains. Perfect!

What the caller was really talking about was the gross disparity between the classes and how the brunt of this dollar decline is affecting the middle class in a much grate way. All while the government continues to protect Big Corporations and the Big Wigs that can afford to get paid in the form of Capital Gains to circumvent falling into higher taxable scales.

Unfortunately, the caller failed to make the talk show host empathize with him. Little does he knows that this and many other well known talk show host belong to an elite group of people that are wealthy enough to be oblivious to "minor economy adjustments" such as the ones we are suffering now.

The talk show host proceeded to call Warren Buffett a big fat hypocrite for complaining about his low tax rate, saying that no one is stopping him from voluntarily writing a check to the IRS for a higher tax rate than the one he originally paid.

Of course, this wouldn’t take care of the original problem.

Wouldn’t it be fair if it was FAIR for all of us?