It's a smart idea Sen. Kent Conrad has, putting down a marker for a 50-50 spending cuts/taxes proposal in the debt negotiations. Then along comes—who else—Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE).
(David Drucker is a reporter for Roll Call.) Nebraska's own Warren Buffett should have a talk with his senator.
"If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further," Buffett said. "But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."
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"They say you have to keep those tax cuts, even on the very wealthy, because that is what energizes business and capitalism," anchor Amanpour said.
"The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on," Buffett explained.
"The rich" apparently also includes Ben Nelson, who is pushing the same old clap-trap about cutting taxes to create jobs that Republicans have been spouting. Being a Republican might help him get re-elected in Nebraska, but the cuts he's so gung-ho about, to Medicaid and Medicare and to Social Security, might not be so popular with Nebraskans when they start hitting.
Of course, what Nelson isn't saying is whether he'd vote with Republicans to filibuster any tax increases. He's doing his usual trick, now grown extremely old, of being the Democrat who makes headlines arguing against his own party in the most important debates.