Censored News!!! Obama’s crony Warren Buffett profits from nixing of Keystone pipeline

A headline on Drudge Report this morning says:

Buffett's Railroad WINNER From Obama's Keystone Pipeline Denial...

But if you click the headline, you get an “Error 404: File not found” message.

That’s because within half an hour after Bloomberg first posted the article, it was pulled.

Happily, someone had copied the article before it was pulled. You can read it (in PDF format) for yourself. Click here!

This is the article that they don’t want you to see.

Buffet’s Burlington Northern Among Winners From Keystone Denial

By Jim Efstathio Jr.

January 23, 2012 12:00 AM EST

Warren Buffet’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.

With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.

“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of Buffet’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said in an interview. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.”

The State Department denied TransCanada a permit on January 18, saying there was not enough time to study the proposal by Feb. 21, a deadline Congress imposed on President Barack Obama. Calgary-based TransCanada has said it intends to re-apply with a route that avoids an environmentally sensitive region of Nebraska, something the Obama administration encouraged. [...]

If completed, Keystone XL wold deliver 700,000 barrels a day of crude from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico, crossing 1,661 miles over Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. [...]

Shipping oil using tank cars on rail costs about $3 more a barrel than pipeline transport [...]

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net

Read the rest of the censored article here.

If you twitter, send a Twitter to Bloomberg (@BloombergNow) to let them know how you feel!

UPDATE (1.25.2012):

Yesterday afternoon/evening, Bloomberg restored the news article. They likely were shamed by having pulled/censored it. Besides, since the article is all over the net, no point in suppressing it! LOL

~Eowyn and DCG

Do Rich Americans Really Pay Less Taxes Than the Middle Class?

Eat the rich!

Like all Leftists, Obama’s irrepressible impulse is to demagogue by fomenting class envy and exploiting our resentment of those who have more, especially in today’s hard economic times.

That’s the basis of Skippy’s proposal yesterday to combat the federal government’s gargantuan $15 trillion deficit — the equivalent of 101% of America’s gross domestic product — by taxing “the rich.”

He called on Congress to increase taxes by $1.5 trillion as part of a 10-year deficit reduction package totaling more than $3 trillion. He proposed that Congress overhaul the tax code and impose what he called the “Buffett rule,” named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett — that “People making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.”

Buffett wrote in a recent piece for The New York Times that “super-rich” people like him should gladly pay more taxes, and that the tax rate he paid last year was lower than that paid by any of the other 20 people in his office, including his secretary. But Buffet left out a vital bit of information from his pious op-ed:

Super-rich Buffet’s super-rich company, Berkshire Hathaway, owes the government tens of millions in taxes and has been wrangling with the IRS over this for years.

Trafficking on Americans’ sense of violated justice, Skippy declared that “the rich” should at least pay as much in taxes — be in the same tax bracket — as middle class Americans like Buffet’s secretary. “There is no justification for it,” Obama said. “It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million.”

But are the rich really taxed less than secretaries? Here’s a fact check by the Associated Press.

Stephen Ohlemacher reports for the AP, Sept. 20, 2011:

The data tell a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.

There may be individual millionaires who pay taxes at rates lower than middle-income workers. In 2009, 1,470 households filed tax returns with incomes above $1 million yet paid no federal income tax, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That, however, was less than 1 percent of the nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1 million.

[...] This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1% of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15% of their income in federal taxes. Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5% of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7%.

The latest IRS figures are a few years older — and limited to federal income taxes — but show much the same thing. In 2009, taxpayers who made $1 million or more paid on average 24.4 percent of their income in federal income taxes, according to the IRS. Those making $100,000 to $125,000 paid on average 9.9 percent in federal income taxes. Those making $50,000 to $60,000 paid an average of 6.3 percent.

Obama’s claim hinges on the fact that, for high-income families and individuals, investment income is often taxed at a lower rate than wages. The top tax rate for dividends and capital gains is 15%. The top marginal tax rate for wages is 35%, though that is reserved for taxable income above $379,150.

With tax rates that high, why do so many people pay at lower rates? Because the tax code is riddled with more than $1 trillion in deductions, exemptions and credits, and they benefit people at every income level, according to data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’ official scorekeeper on revenue issues.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46% of households, mostly low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes this year. Most, however, will pay other taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes.

Note that investment income is earnings that have already been taxed. It is money accrued from wages. In other words, investment income is actually income that is twice taxed!

Meanwhile, ever the hypocrite, mere hours after delivering his speech demonizing wealthy Americans, Skippy dined with some of these very Americans in New York. His haul last night is expected to exceed $2 million for his reelection campaign.

~Eowyn

Let’s Super-tax Hollywood’s Super Rich!

One curious trait of liberals is that they’re very generous with other people’s money, but not with their own. It’s part and parcel of the Left’s hypocrisy.

As an example, super-rich billionaire financier Warren Buffet recently opined that “the super rich” should be glad to pay more in taxes. Then it turns out the IRS has been wrangling with Buffet’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, over tens of millions in taxes owed the U.S. government. Mysteriously, the super super rich Buffet’s super super rich company has not fully paid its tax bills for years!

Super rich Matt Damon, who makes a very good living pretending to be people he’s not, is another example.

Matt Damon pretending he's a soldier

On July 30, 2011, in an exclusive interview at the “Save Our Schools March” in Washington, D.C., Damon said he’s just “so disgusted” with the then-negotiations between Obama and the GOP over the debt limit, and with the “criminal” wealthy for not paying higher taxes. He then blamed the dastardly Tea Party of being “willing to drive it all off a cliff”. This is what Damon said:

“I’m so disgusted man. I mean, no, I don’t know what you do in the face of that kind of intransigence. You know, so my heart does go out to the President. He is dealing with a lot. Yes, the wealthy are paying less than they’ve paid in any time else, certainly in my lifetime. It’s criminal that like, you know, so little is asked of people who are getting so much, I mean, I don’t mind paying more. I really don’t mind paying more taxes. I’d rather pay for taxes than cut like ‘Reading is Fundamental’ or ‘Head Start’ or some of these programs that are really helping kids. I mean, why not? This is the greatest country in the world. Is it that much worse if you pay 6 percent more in taxes? Give me a break. You know, look at what you get for it. You get to be American. I mean, why not raise it per million bucks? Right? And then cap it somewhere.”

Matt Damon pretending he's a rogue CIA assassin

Damon also said those making over $250,000 per year are not job creators: “Nobody went and started a business with their Bush tax cut. You know, I don’t know who would believe something – that just defies common sense so no, that’s – no. I was against those tax cuts. I thought they were ridiculous. So little is asked of the upper class anyway, you know. I mean, what percent of them or their kids are fighting in any of these wars?”

Damon’s diatribe prompted John Ransom of Townhall Finance to propose that “In the name of shared sacrifice, it’s time to impose a tax on the $7 billion in box office receipts that Hollywood generates.” $7 billion in annual receipts can hire quite a few teachers — 145,228 teachers actually.

Ransom further writes:

“Look, if people are going to talk seriously about taxing ‘the idle rich’, they should get serious about looking at the most idle members of our society- those who reside mostly in Los Angeles and Manhattan and make a living off of show business. [...] Matt Damon…gets paid enough to pay 572 teachers. Tell me which has more value for society? A rich, smug, preachy Matt Damon? Or 572 teachers? [...] When was the last time a Damon movie made money by anything other than glorifying violence or preaching a smug unreality to the rest of us who live in the real world?

[...] I think it’s time to take up Damon’s suggestion and tax all of Hollywood at 80 percent of their net worth, and 80 percent of the gross going forward. That would still leave Damon with $3 million of his estimated $65 million net worth. That’s a small price to pay for being an American, Matt.”

Matt Damon pretending to be a cowboy

Holly Won’t of Deceiver.com has an even better idea:

“It’s too bad there’s that pesky law preventing Damon from voluntarily paying more in taxes. Wait, what do you mean there isn’t?

In fact, the U.S. Treasury does accept donations to help pay down the public debt. The problem is, no one gives to it, at least not in droves — not even the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength. In 2010, the Treasury collected only $2.8 million in donations. Year to date, the fund has raised only $1.9 million in gifts for 2011. That’s about enough to keep the $1.6 trillion budget deficit afloat for one second.

Consider that Matt Damon received a $26 million payday for the last Bourne film. That paltry ’6 percent more’ he’s calling for would have totaled a little over $1.5 million extra off his take — and that’s for just one film he’s made. (CelebrityNetWorth.com pegs his assets at around $65 million, commanding about $24 million per year.)

I’ll alert the Treasury they can expect a check in the mail.”

H/t my dear friend Bill O.

~Eowyn

Warren Buffet is a Big Fat Hypocrite

“You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother’s eye.” -Matthew 7:5

Do you remember billionaire financier Warren Buffet’s recent pious lecture to Americans that “the super rich” should happily pay more taxes because “they can afford it”?

Well, it turns out the IRS has been wrangling with Buffet’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, over tens of millions in taxes owed the U.S. government. Mysteriously, the super super rich Buffet company has not fully paid its tax bills for years!

Oh, one other thing: Buffett will host an “economic forum” fundraiser for his pal, Barrry Obama, in New York City next month with VIP tickets topping out at $35,800 a head, reports the New York Post.

H/t my dear friend Sol.

~Eowyn

Bill Wilson writes for NetRightDaily, August 24, 2011:

The Obama Administration has turned to billionaire Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive of financial giant Berkshire Hathaway, to make the case for raising taxes on the rich because, says Buffett, he can afford it.  On Aug. 22, the White House reportedly chatted with Wall Street’s most famous investor to get his thoughts about the sputtering economy.

What likely got the Administration’s attention was Buffett’s oped in The New York Times. Buffett proposed that “It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” He implied he would like to see the capital gains be treated equally as income.

To wit, he wrote of the so-called “super-rich,” which he apparently defines as households earning $1 million or more a year: “Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.” Isn’t that nice of Mr. Buffett?

But if he were truly sincere, perhaps he might simply try paying the taxes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says his company owes? According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills.

According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.”

Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, who was alerted to the controversy by a federal government lawyer, said, “The company has been short-changing the tax collection agency for much of the past decade. Mr. Buffett’s company has not fully settled its tax bills from 2002-2009. Yet he says he’d happily pay more. Except the IRS has apparently been asking him to pay more going on nine years.”

Apparently, not paying taxes in full is an annual occurrence under Buffett’s watch. Considering the size of the company, the amount of unsettled taxes could total in the tens of millions.

McCarty explained, “The rough translation of the report is that Berkshire Hathaway did not pay all the federal taxes that it was required to for 2002 through 2004.  The IRS examination team caught Berkshire Hathaway on at least some issues.  Instead of paying up, Berkshire Hathaway is threatening the IRS with protracted litigation and is in the process of cutting a deal with the IRS Appeals office.”

He continued, “For 2005 and 2006, Berkshire Hathaway again did not pay all the federal taxes that it was required to. Again, the IRS examination team caught Berkshire Hathaway on at least some issues. Now, Berkshire Hathaway is again threatening the IRS with protracted litigation and is trying to cut a deal with the IRS Appeals office.”

McCarty concluded, “And, finally, the IRS has opened another examination of Berkshire Hathaway’s tax returns for 2007 through 2009, but has not officially sent Berkshire Hathaway the bill yet for taxes that Berkshire Hathaway failed to pay for those years. One would expect they will find yet more issues.”

Now, most Americans, when they receive a tax bill from the government, they pay it. They don’t get an attorney. They don’t appeal the bill. They pay it — on time and in full.  But not Buffett’s company, which apparently takes years to settle its liabilities.

Since this appears to be an ongoing pattern at the company, it becomes reasonable to ask: Is this some sort of internal company policy to delay paying taxes on time? If so, could this be construed as a form of tax evasion?

Interesting questions for the man who professes to want to pay more to Uncle Sam, and who sees fit to raise the burden on all job creators — except for perhaps his company — despite the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression.

As Mr. Buffett has seen fit to enter the political arena, in the interests of full disclosure, the American people should be alerted to his own taxing hypocrisy. Reporters should ask him, “If you’re so interested in paying more in taxes, why doesn’t your company settle its tax bills from the past decade now?”

Then they might ask him about the pot and the kettle as a follow-up.

Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government.