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| (Image credit: ABC) |
ABC News’
Seniboye Tienabeso reports:
In a week
when taxes and tax returns have dominated the headlines, billionaire investor
Warren Buffett jumped back into the political debate and showed his returns
exclusively to ABC News’ Bianna Golodryga, adding, “I have never had it so
good. … What has happened in recent years, we were told a rising tide would
lift all boats, but the rising tide has lifted all yachts.”
Buffett’s
secretary since 1993, Debbie Bosanek, sat next to her boss just hours after
being invited by the president to the State of the Union address, where the
president made her the face of tax inequality in America.
Bosanek
pays a tax rate of 35.8 percent of income, while Buffett pays a rate at 17.4
percent.
“I just
feel like an average citizen. I represent the average citizen who needs a
voice,” said Bosanek. “Everybody in our office is paying a higher tax rate than
Warren.”
During
Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Obama, for the first
time, put a minimum percentage figure on the amount of taxes the ultra-rich
should pay – 30 percent – an idea that has been referred to as the “Buffett
rule.”
“The
question is what is fair when you have to raise multi-trillions to fund the
United States of America,” said Buffett.
”[Raising taxes] will not change my behavior. I have paid all different
kinds of rates and I’ve always been interested in making money. I believe this
should be a defining issue. Debbie works just as hard as I do and she pays
twice the rate I do.”
Buffett, a
Democrat and Obama-supporter, had one question for Mitt Romney: “Do you think
the tax system should be perpetuated?”
He doesn’t
blame the former Massachusetts governor or any of the ultra-rich for paying
lower tax rates than most Americans and challenged Congress to make a change.
“I don’t
pay hardly any payroll taxes,” Buffett said. “Gov. Romney hardly pays any
payroll taxes, Newt Gingrich hardly pays any payroll taxes. Debbie pays lots of
payroll taxes.”
He lashed
out at assertions from many Republican leaders that the “Buffett rule” is class
warfare.
“If this is
a war, my side has the nuclear bomb,” Buffett said. “We have K Street. … We
have Wall Street. Debbie doesn’t have anybody. I want a government that is
responsive to the people who got the short straw in life.”
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