Shareholders request answers from Buffetts loyalties as he appears to serve Obama Administration
Omaha NE / Washington D.C. - The National Center for Public Policy Research plans to question Berkshire Hathaways Chief Executive Officer
Warren Buffett over his calls for higher taxes and apparent conflict of interest regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline at the companys annual shareholder meeting in Omaha Nebraska on May 5. National Center General Counsel Justin Danhof will ask Buffett to explain whether his loyalties lie with President Barack Obamas policies or Berkshire Hathaways shareholders.
Buffett has hosted multiple lavish fundraisers for President Obama advised the President and lent his name and idea to the Presidents plan to raise taxes on all households making at least $1 million per year said Danhof. Berkshire Hathaway shareholders have a right to know if Buffetts loyalties are to President Obama or company shareholders?
In August 2011 Buffett penned an op-ed for the New York Times calling for the federal government to raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million including of course dividends and capital gains. Following Buffetts lead President Obama introduced a plan for a minimum 30 percent effective tax rate on millionaires that he claimed would help us close our deficit.
A Buffett Rule tax is estimated to do precious little to reduce national debt. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation the plan would yield only $4 to $5 billion per year. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer describes the Buffett Rule as worse than useless and explains that: If we collect the Buffett tax for the next 250 years -- a span longer than the life of this republic -- it would not cover the Obama deficit for 2011 alone.
Rather than rewarding success the Buffett Rule foments class warfare and does nothing to address the record-setting debts President Obama is accumulating. Most Americans would like wealthy individuals to invest in capital and create jobs. If Buffett is so adamant that wealthy Americans and business owners pay their fair share he should write a check to the treasury and send it in said Danhof.
Instead of promoting a pointless plan that pits Americans against one another Buffett should be focusing on his underperforming investments such as Coca-Cola.
Danhof will also ask Buffett about the potential advantage his company may have received as a result of President Obamas decision to halt the Keystone XL Pipeline.
In January President Obama stopped the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would deliver oil from Canadian tar sands to American refineries on the Gulf Coast. At a time of prolonged unemployment that decision cost Americans an estimated 20000 jobs. However not everyone lost money from Obamas decision.
Burlington Santa Fe a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway stands to profit from Obamas decision since it owns rail lines that may be used in lieu of the pipeline.
Buffett and President Obama have been parading around the country demanding that the wealthy pay more taxes in the name of fairness and social justice. So why did the President halt a pipeline that would have created 20000 middle-income jobs and decrease our dependence on unfriendly foreign oil? asked Danhof. While Obamas actions hurt many average Americans they may very well enrich Buffett - one of the richest men in American history. That is not fairness; its crony capitalism.
Danhof is attending the meeting as proxy for the National Centers executive director David Almasi who is a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder. The National Center for Public Policy Research is also a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder.
The National Center For Public Policy Research is a conservative free-market non-profit think-tank established in 1982. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100000 individual recent supporters. In 2011 it received over 350000 individual donations. Two percent of its revenue comes from corporate sources.
