Text 484, 85 rader
Skriven 2004-08-02 18:54:08 av Gary Moore (1:396/45.0)
    Kommentar till text 477 av Stan Hardegree (1:379/1.2)
Ärende: President John Kerry !!
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 GM> PROSPERING businesses
 GM>  shouldn't have problems paying taxes to support
 GM> the cities in which they
 GM>  operate.  They use the city streets.  They use the city's
 GM> infrastructure,
 GM>  the water, the electricity.  They rely on the
 GM> city's fire department,
 GM>  the police department, the sanitation department. If they

 SH> The electric company and the sanitation department
 SH> around here are private, Kevin.

 The electric company relies on the city allowing it right of way,
 to construct and maintain utility poles on public property, etc.
 Public property needs to be maintained.  Government needs to be
 funded.  That's why we pay taxes.   Read this:

 Warren Buffett Urges Higher Corporate Taxes
 by Jonathan Stempel

 NEW YORK - Warren Buffett, the world's second-richest person, wants to pay
 more taxes.  And he wants the rest of corporate America to pay more too.

 In his annual letter to shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
 holding company, released on Saturday, the 73-year-old Buffett said
 Berkshire's taxes rose more than eleven-fold to $3.3 billion from 1995
 to 2003, as profits rose ten-fold to $8.15 billion.

 During the same period, federal income taxes paid by all U.S. companies
 fell by 16 percent, to $132 billion.

 "We hope our taxes continue to rise in the future -- it will mean
 we are prospering -- but we also hope that the rest of corporate America
 antes up along with us," said Buffett, who has previously criticized
 Bush administration tax policy.

 (Note Buffet's mention of "prospering.")

 Tax cuts won by President Bush, amounting to $1.7 trillion over 10 years,
 have helped push the federal budget deficit to record levels, as have a
 weak economy and higher spending for defense and domestic security.

 "Tax breaks for corporations -- and their investors, particularly
 large ones -- were a major part of the administration's 2002 and
 2003 initiatives," Buffett said.  "If class warfare is being waged in
 America, my class is clearly winning."

 Buffett's personal wealth is closely tied to his company.  Forbes
 magazine last month put Buffett's net worth at $42.9 billion, most of
 which is in Berkshire stock.  His wealth was just behind that of
 Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose estimated net worth stood at
 $46.6 billion.

 Buffett's letter, which is 21 pages long this year, is highly anticipated
 by investors.  Unlike most shareholder letters seen as heavy with
 banalities, Buffett's are considered fun to read and sometimes
 controversial.

 Last May, Buffett wrote a Washington Post opinion article criticizing
 a key element of Bush's tax package -- a cut in tax rates on corporate
 dividends.  Buffett urged that any tax cuts should go to lower-income
 people or others "who both need and will spend the money gained."

 Buffett said corporate income taxes accounted for 7.4 percent of
 fiscal 2003 U.S. tax receipts.  Except for 1983, that was the lowest
 in the last 70 years, he said.


 [Reuters - 3/6/2004]


 From Warren Buffett's annual letter to shareholders of his
 Berkshire Hathaway:

 "Corporate income taxes in fiscal 2003 accounted for 7.4% of all
 federal tax receipts, down from a post-war peak of 32% in 1952.
 With one exception (1983), last year's percentage is the lowest
 recorded since data was first published in 1934.  Even so, tax breaks
 for corporations (and their investors, particularly large ones) were
 a major part of the Administration's 2002 and 2003 initiatives."

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