Buffett Wants Tax Hikes for "Mega-Rich"

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett thinks he and his “mega-rich” friends should pay more taxes.

“My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress,” Buffett writes in a New York Times op-ed Monday. “It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”

In the op-ed, the so-called Oracle of Omaha calls on Congress to immediately raise the tax rate for households with taxable incomes of more than $1 million, with an additional hike for those making $10 million more.

Buffett notes that many investment managers are taxed at only a 15 percent rate on their investments but almost nothing in payroll taxes. He reveals his last federal income tax bill was $6,938,744, which was only 17.4 percent of his taxable income.

“While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks,” Buffett writes.

“These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species,” he writes. “It’s nice to have friends in high places.“

Buffett also threw cold water on the idea that higher taxes would discourage the rich from investing, saying that “potential taxes have never scared them off” in the past.