Mayor Mike won’t be joining the Buffett bandwagon.
Bloomberg, speaking this morning on “Meet the Press,” blasted billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s call for the super-rich to pay more in taxes as political gamesmanship, and insisted any tax increases must be levelled on everyone.
“The Warren Buffett thing, that’s just theatrics,” the mayor said. “If Warren Buffett made his money from ordinary income rather than capital gains, his tax rate would be a lot higher than his secretary’s.
“In fact a very small percentage of people in this country pay a big chunk of the taxes.”
Obama responded to Buffett’s famous critique that he has a lower tax rate than his secretary by proposing an alternative minimum tax that would ensure the rich pay at least as much taxes as the middle class.
The mayor suggested a tax increase across the board of 3 percent, which he said would cost middle-class taxpayers $150 while the rich would end up paying significantly more.
The mayor also had sharp words for the latest budget deadlock in Washington over a plan to provide disaster aid and keep government agencies open.
On Friday the Democratic-led Senate blocked a House bill that would fund federal agencies and provide $3.7 billion in disaster assistance, partly paying for that aid with cuts in two Energy Department loan programs that finance technological development.
“Think about it, one month later we are a few days, a week from shutting down the government, again,” Bloomberg said. “It spooked us a month ago, it’s going to spook us now. People have no confidence that Washington, both sides of aisle, are coming together to try and do what’s right for the economy.”
Today, Democratic and Republican lawmakers traded barbs over the impasse, acknowledging the standoff doesn’t look good but blaming the other for the stalemate.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) blamed Tea Party Republicans in the House for “the spectacle of a near government shutdown,” calling the showdown “embarrassing.”
“There is a group, and I do believe it is mostly centered in the House in terms of these Tea Party Republicans, who say on every issue we’re going to make this a make-or-break,” he said.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, who is stepping down from Senate Republican leadership and also spoke on CNN, criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for failing to pass a measure to keep the government funded beyond Sept. 30.
“I’ll give the Senate Democratic leader most of the credit: He manufactured a crisis all week when there was no crisis,” Alexander said.
The latest fight involves whether to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by taking money from a program that has created jobs to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.
House Republicans early Friday morning corralled enough of their own members to drive through by a vote of 219-203 a measure that gives FEMA $3.65 billion but takes $1.5 billion from an auto-loan program and another $100 million from a program to provide loan guarantees to renewable-energy companies.
On Friday the Senate put that stopgap spending measure aside while Democrats and Republicans try to resolve the fight over FEMA funding. Reid is expected to hold a Senate vote on his own plan Monday evening that would fund the government and FEMA while retaining funding for the auto-loan program and the separate program to help boost the renewable-energy industry.
Bloomberg also said he thinks President Barack Obama could win re-election next year in spite of the country’s high unemployment rate.
Bloomberg cites the power of incumbency as one of Obama’s advantage. He says if he were Obama, he would emphasize what he’s done to try to improve the economy and admit some things haven’t worked but that he’ll keep trying.
The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent says Obama remains a viable candidate and that the election is a real horse race regardless of the GOP nominee, but said he probably won’t endorse any candidate.
He didn’t make an endorsement in 2008.
— with AP, NewsCore