Published August 17, 2011
Warren Buffett, the multi-billionaire, thinks he doesn't pay enough taxes. He wants the government to tax him more because he says as a percentage of income he pays less in tax than his secretary. -- Maybe he should give his secretary a raise.
There is an Office of Public Debt in the Treasury Department which exists so that people who think the government isn't already getting enough of their money can pay more. It's a free country (still) so if Warren Buffett thinks government is not getting enough of his money, he should write Washington a check. He can then try persuading other billionaires, like his friend Bill Gates, to do the same.
Does Buffett know that even if the government confiscated all of his wealth and that of every billionaire and millionaire in the country, its effect on debt reduction would be minuscule? That's because revenue isn't the problem; spending is the problem.
Whenever government gets more of our money, it doesn't use it to pay down debt. It spends it on new programs, or expands existing ones. Giving more money to government hoping it will reduce debt is like giving blood to Dracula, hoping he will stop looking at our necks.
The larger question is: Why would anyone want to send more money to government which is such a poor steward of it? If you send your child off to college with an allowance and he blows it on partying the first weekend and calls to ask for more, you'd be a fool to send it to him. You would be subsidizing wrong decisions and bad behavior.
If it makes Buffett feel better to send the government more of his money, let him do so. I'd rather invest mine in a way that increases the likelihood of job creation which will then produce more in taxes that the government can misspend.
Cal Thomas is America's most widely syndicated newspaper columnist and a Fox News contributor.