Warren Buffett: A Wealthy Philanthropist with Some Bad Ideas
By Martin Morse Wooster (Foundation Watch, November 2011, PDF here)
In August, Warren Buffett, America’s second-richest man with $39 billion in assets, complained in the op-ed pages of the New York Times that his taxes were too low. “Last year my federal tax bill—the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf—was $6,938,794,” the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway wrote. “That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income—and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in my office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.”
Buffett demanded that Congress raise taxes on America’s millionaires and impose an additional surtax on those who make more than $10 million. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress,” Buffett contended. “It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”
President Obama and Buffett, an ardent liberal Democrat, have known each other for some time. Buffett served on the presidential transition team for economic policy, and in 2010 the president gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Buffett’s grandson, Howard W. Buffett, spent a year and a half in the Obama administration as a staffer in the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. He then worked for the Department of Defense promoting agricultural development in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read More
The Atlantic Philanthropies is a picture-perfect example of a foundation that honors the "donor intent" of its creator. It adheres closely to the mission envisioned by founder Chuck Feeney. On the other hand, it funds left-wing causes and is run by a G... Read More
Summary: Despite a total debunking of one of the great scientific frauds in modern times, many parents continue to believe that vaccines are responsible for autism in children. Misguided activists and unscrupulous trial lawyers are promoting this decei... Read More
The out-of-court settlement in Robertson v. Princeton helped secure some protection for the donor intent of the late Charles and Marie Robertson and illustrates the lasting tension between donors and universities about how donor funds are used. Other c... Read More
Since 1930 the mammoth W.K. Kellogg Foundation has given billions of dollars to causes and projects that encourage dependency on government. Founder W.K. Kellogg rejected socialism, but he was not specific about his intentions and not forceful about tr... Read More
The American Red Cross was founded as an independent nongovernmental organization but over time it lost its independence and became a quasi-governmental entity. This article examines how the group grappled with the Mississippi River Flood of 1927 and o... Read More
The American Red Cross was founded as an independent nongovernmental organization but over time it lost its independence and became a quasi-governmental entity. Today it occupies a unique position in the federal government as the only nongovernmental o... Read More
The battle between the children of Charles and Marie Robertson, heirs to the A&P grocery fortune, and Princeton University over control of the Robertson Foundation could be the most important donor intent case of this decade. The case has not yet come ... Read More
From a posh townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the Century Foundation has been pumping out research and opinion on homeland security, Social Security, immigration, war, the media, education, and healthcare. Many of its products reflect an almost... Read More
The Environmental Working Group claims to "expose threats to your health and the environment." However, its shoddy research and shady tactics serve another purpose–helping trial lawyers get rich by suing big business like Monsanto and DuPont.The ... Read More
