Billionaire Bill Gates Calls For Increasing Taxes On The Rich: ‘That’s Just Justice’

[pampango]

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Obama once again urged Congress to pass the Buffett rule, noting that 25 percent of American millionaires pay less in taxes that millions of families in the middle-class. Republicans were quick to dismiss his request as “the politics of envy and division.” However, multi-billionaire Bill Gates called his policy something else entirely: “That’s just justice.”

In an interview with the BBC, Gates noted “taxes are going to have to go up” and thus he’d prefer that they “go up more on the rich than everyone else.” There needs to be “a sense of shared sacrifice,” he said, adding, “right now, I don’t feel like people like myself are paying as much as we should”:

GATES: Well the United States has a huge budget deficit, so taxes are going to have to go up. And I certainly agree that they should go up more on the rich than everyone else. That’s just justice.

BBC HOST: Is that a message you think that works with other people as wealthy as yourself, or is it just a small circle of friends — yourself, Warren Buffet, a few others.

GATES: Well, I hope we can solve that deficit problem with a sense of shared sacrifice — where everybody would feel like they’re doing their part. And right now, I don’t feel like people like myself are paying as much as we should.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/25/411283/bill-gates-taxes-justice/

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Love or hate him - he's spot on!

[redqueen]

2. Well that's odd.

BBC America is running a week-long series of stories about the super rich on their morning news show (GMT), and in Monday's installment they discussed how much the rich pay in taxes. And they made a point to portray the super rich in America as paying in soooooo much in taxes... it was almost as if they were saying the super rich in America deserve to never have their taxes raised because they go so far over and above already.

[gateley]

3. His dad feels the same way. He tried to get a tax imposed on the wealthy (himself included) in

Washington State. He was joined by some other good people, but was shot down by the younger hot shots who are better known -- Ballmer, Schultz, Bezos.

EDIT: Misspelled Ballmer's name, not that I should care.

[Fuzz]

4. He's obviously a communist and an enemy of capitalism and jesus.

[Kingofalldems]

5. Kick and Rec for the trickle down crowd

[hifiguy]

6. That's gonna leave a mark on the Repukes.

Ouch.

[Old Troop]

7. Did he write that on the back of a check made out to

the treasury for a huge amount of money?

[ibegurpard]

8. Good for him...why doesn't he take up this fight and keep his ignorant nose out of public education?