Last Saturday, Brinker's guest speaker was David Cay Johnston. I was a bit surprised that he would have him on again so soon. It's only been about 6 months since his last appearance.
The last time Johnston was on, he had some really negative things to say about Brinker's hero, Warren Buffett. He said that Buffett used/uses the tax system to build his fortune. Brinker did not go anywhere near the subject again with Johnston this weekend.
Here are some excerpts from my June 7, 2008 Summary:
Bob Brinker's guest speaker on Saturday was David Cay Johnston, reporter for the New York Times, and Pulitzer prize-winning author of "Free Lunch, How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill).
Caller Marilyn asked David Cay Johnston: "I was just wondering if other people thought about the generosity of Warren Buffet, and maybe the Fisher Family, in their attempts of donating $billions of dollars and then avoiding the taxes that they would have had to pay had they declared this."
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David Cay Johnston said: "Well, Warren Buffet is in my book, less for his generosity than for the way he deals with the tax system in other areas. I tell about how Mr. Buffet got a hundred million dollar gift from the taxpayers in New York State for a business that cost him $40million dollars. How he got a interest-free loan for 28 years for for 2/3rds of a $billion dollars. You think about that for a second. Imagine where you are in San Francisco, where if you bought a house in 1980, you'd never made a payment on it -- didn't have to pay interest on it all these years, and this year, you finally had to pay half the price you agreed to in 1980. I mean, that deal alone would make you very, very well off.....
.....And then I show how Mr. Buffet has a utility, an electric utility that's trying to do two things. It wants to keep the taxes that are built into the rates you pay. Because utilities are legal monopolies, they have to collect every cost from you, including their income taxes. And he's been fighting to be able to pocket those taxes permanently......
.....And then another of his electric companies, he's charging much higher prices than local businesses believe are appropriate. And he used his political muscle to shut off public debate about this by threatening an ally of the local business people with onerous legislation unless they passed a resolution promising to never help try and get out of the clutches of his business again.....
.....So Mr. Buffet is a very smart investor, but he's enhanced those returns by using the government to give him money, to extend him extraordinary loans, to charge rates that are higher than the market or normal regulation, and to pocket taxes that you are forced to pay if you are one of his companies......."
Brinker made no response to that shocking revelation but immediately moved on: "Steve is on the line in Virginia, Steve......"
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