January 20, 2010 3:09 PM

Buffett blasts Obama's bank tax

Berkshire Hathaway leader Warren Buffett criticizes the president's proposal in a TV interview, saying the government benefited from the bailout.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) chairman Warren Buffett is criticizing a tax on financial companies proposed last week by the administration of his distant cousin, President Barack Obama.

The "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" would be a tax of 0.15% on the debt of the largest financial companies, such as Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and General Electric (GE). The proposal says the tax would last at least 10 years but would continue "until the American people are fully compensated for the extraordinary assistance they provided to Wall Street."

Buffett has advised and supported the president in the past, but he does not appear to have been consulted this time around.

In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Buffett, a Democrat and a shareholder via Berkshire Hathaway in Goldman Sachs (GS) and Wells Fargo (WFC), took issue with the notion that the government's bailout under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was for the benefit of banks.

"What was done in the fall of 2008 was designed to save the American economy. It wasn't designed to save the banks," Buffett said, noting the government's multibillion-dollar preferred-stock investments in Goldman, Wells and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) under the TARP, which have since been paid back with interest, have earned it a considerable profit.

Buffett suggested the biggest beneficiaries of the government bailout may be the U.S. autoworkers who kept their jobs. General Motors, which received more than $50 billion, is expected to be one of the biggest losers among U.S. investments under the TARP, along with Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM).

"I'm the last guy to suggest that you should go out and put a special tax on autoworkers, but if you're really looking for the people that benefited from government losses, you'd have to look there -- or if you look at Fannie and Freddie. I mean, are you going to go out and tax the members of Congress who ran Freddie and Fannie?" Buffett said.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/top-stocks/blog.aspx?post=1567449&_blg=1,1567449&=&ucpg=2

I like Buffet.

I agree with his logic on this article too.

He's got a point. So does Cramer. But you see, I look at is this way.....

TAX THE CRAP OUT OF THE KNUCKLEHEADS WHO GOT WEALTHY BY BRINGING OUR ECONOMY TO THE BRINK OF RUIN



I will take payment in cash.

I don't think Congress, Bush, Obama, Clinton, Greenspan, and Bernanke would do that willingly.

well Congress and Obama are exempt on account of they're still in power - but we can still get Bush, Clinton, Greenspan and Bernanke are fair game! yeah - i know Bernanke is still here...but he can't do anything about it!