Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has delivered a sharp response to investor Warren Buffett’s plea for the wealthy to pay more in taxes, saying the billionaire should “write a big check today.”
In a New York Times op-ed piece published on Sunday, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Buffett said he and other super-rich Americans “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”
Buffett wrote that he paid only 17 percent of his taxable income last year, less than anyone else in his office. He called on Congress to raise the tax rate for households with taxable incomes of more than $1 million, with an additional hike for households making $10 million or more.
At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday, ABC News reported, Rep. Bachmann told the gathering: “We believe, unlike Warren Buffett, that taxes are high enough already.
“I have a suggestion. Mr. Buffett, write a big check today. There’s nothing you have to wait for. As a matter of fact the president has redefined millionaires and billionaires as any company that makes over $200,000 a year. So perhaps Mr. Buffett would like to give away his entire fortune above $200,000.
“That’s what you want to do? Have at it. But don’t ask the rest of us to have our taxes increased because you want to have a sound byte. We want to have real job creation in this country and that’s what we’ll stand for as fiscal conservatives.”
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