Warren Buffett angrily lashed out at the government’s proposed “financial responsibility tax” on CNBC, which he called “some kind of a guilt tax.” Hear him rant.
“What was done in the fall of 2008 was designed to save the American economy. It wasn’t designed to save the banks, it wasn’t designed to save me. It was designed to save 300 million Americans and a good job was done. And the banks are the ones, you know, they paid it back with huge interest. The government’s made a lot of money off Wells. They’ve made a lot of money off Goldman. They’ve made a lot of money off J. P Morgan. And to say that they should be paying for the fact that the government lost a lot, or may lose a lot of money in Freddie and Fannie and perhaps with the auto companies, it just doesn’t make any sense to me. Are you going to go and tax the members of congress who ran Freddie and Fannie? The American people love the idea of Goldman or AIG or anybody like that, those are bad names. They don’t think so much about Freddie or Fannie which are that expensive and which Congress ran. I think a tax that’s enacted with the idea that the headlines will be appealing and that a certain amount of vengeance will be achieved, I don’t think that’s the greatest form of tax policy.”
He’s definitely a little on the cranky side, no?
Via: NY Mag
