this buffett stuff looks bad.s you are a rich person to give him campaign money or a supporter. look, warren buffett good billionaire, mitt romney bad billionaire. >> dana: not even a billionaire. >> andrea: it look like he is creating two classes, politically connected. not politically connected. >> dana: do you worry about that, bob? >> bob: i am really worried about buffett's financial situation. i know he desperately needs the railroad to make himself more money because he is barely hanging on. everybody used to like buffet. this man has given all of his money, will give it to charity. >> dana: after he made it all and lived like a king for -- >> bob: he lives fairly simply. >> dana: based on his outfit and the kuke lay lee. >> boblee -- kuke ukulele. >> bob: that should tell you what you need to know about rich people. what you are suggesting here is buffett investing in railroads because of the xl pipeline -- >> eric: not even suggesting. i'll say point blank buffett invests in things realizing when obama go

which is why buffett and now the president, are pushing what's being called the buffett rule, requiring millionaires to pay at least 30% in income tax, including that money earned through investments. it comes just 24 hours after republican candidate mitt romney revealed he made almost $43 million over two years, paying a tax rate of 13.9% in 2010. not debbie's 35.8%. today, on the campaign trail, mitt romney's wife, ann, appeared frustrated that they were so pressured to release their taxes. >> you all know he's been successful in business. unfortunately, that was made abundantly clear yesterday when our tax forms were released. >> reporter: opponents argue raising the capital gains tax for millionaires like romney will stifle job creation, something this billionaire disagrees with. >> capital gains rates have been much higher in the past. >> reporter: buffett does have this question for the governor. what is your challenge to him? what is your question to him? if he did nothing illegal? >> is it a moral obligation if he has the power to do it to change, try to change the tax law? if y

we heard from warren buffett's secretary there. we heard from the president last night, using the word fairness. why is his re-election team convinced this will resonate with the voters? >> reporter: put yourself in the obama campaign shoes. the president has a 57% disapproval rating when it comes to his handling of the economy. but these two items about taxation, increasing taxes on wealthier americans, the so-called buffett rule, and also changing the tax code to encourage, manufacturing here in the u.s., what the president is talking about right now. these are popular. the problem with the obama campaign, the conundrum, is his signature achievements, whatever their merits, health care reform, financial reform, they're not popular. he cannot campaign in front of a mass audience. so, he's trying to talk about these stark defenses he has with the republican nominee, whoever he may end up being. david? >> all right. jake tapper on the challenge ahead for the president. thank you. >>> and diane sawyer will be sitting down with the pr

you know that sitting next to michelle obama will be warren buffett. you know the widow of steve jobs, the apple founder will also be sitting next to michelle obama. it is interesting tono

you know that sitting next to michelle obama will be warren buffett. you know the widow of steve jobs, the apple founder will also be sitting next to michelle obama. it is interesting to know the various leaders and who sits next to them. nancy pelosi indicated among her guests will be richard trunka, the president of the afl-cio sitting next to nancy pelosi. again, the

controversy surrounding warren buffett's secretary is heating up.bbie was a guest of the first lady at the "state of the union." and the president used her as a champion for secretaries across the country. well, he is and her boss warren buffett sat down with abc news to talk about her new role. >> you said that you felt as if you are representing secretaries across the country yesterday. >> right. i just feel like an average citizen, so maybe i should say i was representing just the average citizen who, you know, needs a voice. and wants to be treated fairly in the area of taxation. >> that is typical. he is is right in the middle. >> eric: is he is a real representation of secretaries across america? according to "forbes" buffett's secretary could make between $200,000 and $500,000 a year. comparison, the average secretary makes $43,500 a year. that's according to the bureau of labor statistics. greg, typical? >> greg: $200,000 is $10,000 per cat picture on her desk. by the way, he is is not a secretary. she's what you call a personal assistant. 2

the president as he speaks about what he sees is tax inequality and the so-called buffett rule.sident is determined to get wealthier americans to pay more taxes after the billionaire investor said he was paying lower tax rate than his secretary. and joining us are nancy f photenhaure and james carville. the president says that mr. buffett gets most of his money from investments, and statutory and not effective, and that makes his tax rate lower than his secretary. what do you make of that? >> well, it is an illusion, and what you hear quoted does not reflect the 35% already taxed through the corporate tax rate. so, their income tax rate on top of that is a double-taxation of the income tax dollars earned which is not expressed. that is why when you look at the data the top 1% pay 40% of the income tax revenue even though they earn 20% of that money. >> james carville, but more than half of americans agree that the capital gains and dividends should be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, and it is an issue front and center, and nancys that it is true, that the top 1% pays

and buffett was paying at 14.7%, as i recall, of $66 million. the average american can sit down and see if you're going to work every day and you're paying double the same percentage on your amount of money, whatever that amount of money is, that something needs to be fixed in terms of how we pay people for what they do. >> could you do this where you actually lowered rates on wages, essentially, on working income, and then you would raise the rates on investment income and then that would end up generating, quote, more revenue? >> i think as a beginning step you should put the capital gains and dividends back to where they were before. >> a lot of people won't like that. the "wall street journal" will not like that. in the long term i think we should push towards consumption taxes. don't count on that happening in the near future, but certainly you should be able to say if i go out and work every day, whether it's $70,000 or $5 million, the taxes i pasch should be equivalent to somebody who sits back -- and with accumulated wealth to have an in

what warren buffett said months ago.cretary pays a lower rate than a billionaire does on his tax ooes -- >> that warren buffett pays a higher rate than his own secretary. and there's no better illustration of that than mitt romney's tax returns which he made public. it's unbelievable that somebody who is making so much money, over $20 million, is paying so little in taxes. it's because the system is broken. i think the fact that the president has decided to take this on, the fundamental question of fairness in our society and make the fight on behalf of the middle class is very, very powerful. it's going to resonate with people. and i think the reason he's going to win this election. >> now the thing that bothers me is that when you raise this, their response is you are just envious. you are just jealous. i mean, it is bad enough you have this lopsided arrangement, but on top of that is to say, well, this is lopsided. this is not fair. oh, you're just jealous. >> well, you know, they are going to do everything to try and

if warren buffett's secretary pays 30%, warren buffett should. and mitt's biggest problem and i told you, i think he was a good governor. but his biggest problem is he's got a tin ear fop say i made $378,000 in speeches but that's just pocket change. pocket change in this economy to the average working american? >> and you said he was a good governor. whether i agree with that or not, he's not running as governor. he's running as a businessman. >> he's running away from what he did as governor. >> exactly. >> you had john mccain out stumping for him today trying to use the bain experience in a positive light. watch this and tell me whether or not you think this is wise. >> i think rather than be embarrassed in any way about the record of bain capital, we should be glad that there are people and companies and groups that will go out and buy companies that are ailing and fix them up and make them job creators again. >> michael, they've also bought companies and fired or laid off a lot of the workers. >> yeah, but, reverend, i mean, that's part of t

she is the new face of the "buffett rule," which holds a billionaire like warren buffett should not pay a lower tax rate than his secretary, debbie bosanek. to drive the point home, bosanek will be sitting in a place of honor with the first lady at tonight's state of the union speech. >> the president believes it is not fair, inherently not fair that those who are millionaires and billionaires pay at a lower rate than average americans who are struggling to get by. >> reporter: the issue took on new urgency as mitt romney released his tax returns. showing he earned more than $42 million over the last two years- - almost all of it from investments-- and paid more than $6 million in taxes, for an effective tax rate of 14%. romney did not mention his tax rate or the buffett rule today, but he vowed to lower taxes on the middle class, and attacked the president for using what he called "divisive" language. >> we don't demonize prosperity. we celebrate success. that the difference between our party and the president. >> reporter: many economists say it makes sense to tax the kind of investme

no, people are unemployed because buffett isn't paying enough in taxes.hink it will work. i don't think people envy the wealthy in to the extent he hopes. people want opportunity. on his tax issue, not only did we see the opening calling for a minimum tax on millionaires but more complications for a tax code that everyone agrees is complicated. >> the 30% is a super minimum tax. we have one but this is higher and basically, when the alternative minimum tax was imposed in 1969, that's what they said. now it applies to millions of middle class families. >> do you think the average american husband and wife out there struggling, sit around the table saying it upsets me that warren buffett doesn't pay as much as in taxes as his secretary. the thing these people have been thinking about is we've had an unemployment rate between 8 and 9% and a economy growing under 2%. >> but manufacturing is back and million jobs. >> and if we give more money to community colleges everybody will be an electrical engineer. this president is vulnerable and he knows it. he's tryi

. >> tax reform should follow the buffett rule. if you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30% in taxes. now, you can call this class warfare all you want. asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? most americans would call that common sense. >> that was president obama delivering his third state of the union address tuesday night. whether you call it class warfare or common sense democrats call the speech a home run with swing voters. his approval rate climbing toward the 50% mark. is president obama back? so, kim, what did the speech tell but what obama's election strategy is going to be? >> class warfare, class warfare, the president tried to make the case the economy is doing better. that's a hard case to make. what this mostly was was a populous pitch, the president ticking off a list of boogie men responsible for america's misfortune and laying out ways to go after them. financial firms that need prosecutors sicked on them. >> the thing that struck me was that how littl

warren buffett is helping to design it himself. he is able to buy these shares for pennies on the dollar and once the bailout becomes clear, the shares surged and he ends up doing very well. you have a circumstance where warren buffett may or may not depend on your view have helped design an effective bailout but it cannot be avoided. the fact that while he is doing so he was actively and aggressively buying millions of shares of stock in the companies that would bail from the bailout he was designing. that is an example of chronic capitalism. doesn't matter if you are an investor or how good your analysts are or how good your number crunchers are. if you don't know how bailout will be structured you won't be a beneficiary. let me now talk briefly about the third part of this crony capitalist system and that is what are called the green energy economy that barack obama has created. this is another example of crony capitalism. people here are familiar with the term solyndra which received the $535 million guaranteed government loan.

warren buffett himself said.is a billionaire and he has done very well and benefited greatly from all this country has to offer and he doesn't believe he should pay less in taxes, lower tax rate than his secretary. president agrees with that. >> you heard speaker boehner in the piece saying it was negotiating with somebody who never negotiated anything before. if you speaker boehner came back with the same deal they were negotiating during the time of the debt ceiling back and forth with the president, would the president agree to that deal? >> clever question, bret. the answer is yes, the deal the president and speaker was working on is a balanced deal to include cut discretionary spending which has already exceeded $2 trillion in an agreement with the congress. reduction in defense spending and reform in entitlement and revenue. you heard throughout the process that revenue was off the table. the fact of the matter is the speaker of the house, president of the united states were discussing a grand bargain that

are the democrats already subbing out warren buffett for mitt romney?ick around for the side show. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china, impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. >>> back to "hardball." now for the sideshow. slip of the tongue. the day of the state of the union address, both sides answering the question. what did you think? it was chuck schumer's chance, he made a point about the buffett rule. if you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30% in taxes. let's hear senator schumer. >> we agree with the president. it makes no sense that a millionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a se

. >>> coming up on 9news now, buffett sings. one of the richest men in the world, warren buffett sings about working on the railroad. >> that story, when we come back. >>> a lot of power and prestige go with being a u.s. senator. but apparently refuse august pat down from the tsa security agents is not among the privileges. senator rand paul took a stand today in nashville. peggy fox caught up with him today. i'm peggy fox at national airport. where senator rand paul describes how he missed his flight today after a standoff with it. s.a. agents in nashville. tsa agents didn't care about seeing senator rand paul's knee after he set off a screening machine in nashville. they were about to give him a pat down and he refused. >> if you go through and your 10-year-old or 12-year-old daughter goes through and the light goes off and you don't want her patted down, i think she ought to get to walk back through there. >> after an shower paul was final lay loud to walk back through the scanner again. senator paul says unless the passenger

. >>> and now, first it was warren buffett and now it is reality tv star kim kardashian. what could they have in common? both center stage on the question of fairness in the way the country taxes the rich versus the middle class. some big unions in california have created an ad saying people like kim kardashian are the reason the tax code has to change. we asked abc anchor bianna golodryga to dig in. >> reporter: she's made a fortune by talking about, well, nothing. and now she's got a lot of important people talking about her. a lib y'all california advocacy group says kim kardashian, who made $12 million in 2010 alone, should pay more in state income taxes. they say she pays just 1% more than folks who make a middle class wage. >> the time has come for people that make the kind of money that kim kardashian makes to pay a little bit more because they benefit the most from society. >> reporter: it's an argument similar larm to the one made by billionaire investor warren buffett, who last year got the world's attention by making the case that the nation's top earners shoul

you will recall the investor and obama supporter warren buffett has said he should not pay a lower taxate than his secretary. got famous for that. the president called it the "buff let rule," and to drive home the point he asked his secretary to sit next to the first lady michelle obama during the "state of the union" address. all of this on the same day that the g.o.p. presidential candidate mitt romney released the tax runs showing he paid a lower rate than many americans. >> we need to make sure that middle class workers are not paying more in tax rates than people who are making $40 million or $150 million a year. we have rules of the road in place. i am sure mitt romney tried to follow them. the question is, we need change in the tax coat -- tax code so everyone is doing their fair share. >>shepard: according to a "new york times" poll, more americans agree with the buffett rule concept and according to the results, 52 percent of americans say the investment should be taxed at the same rate as income wages while 36 percent say they approve the current tax policy. and wendell has t

which is why buffett and now the president are pushing what's being called the buffett rule, requiringt 30% in income tax, including that money earned through investments. it comes just 24 hours after republican candidate mitt romney revealed he made almost $43 million over two years, paying a tax rate of 13.9% in 2010. not debbie's 35.8%. mitt romney's wife, ann, appeared frustrated that they were so pressured to release their tax returns. >> you all know he's been successful in business. unfortunately, that was made abundantly clear yesterday when our tax forms were released. >> reporter: opponents argue raising the capital gains tax for millionaires like romney will stifle job creation, something this billionaire disagrees with. >> capital gains rates have been much higher in the past. >> reporter: it should also be noted that warren buffett doesn't blame mitt romney for the tax rate that he pays. he says he's done nothing wrong, just followed procedure and the law. he blames congress instead. bianna golodryga, abc news, omaha, nebraska. >> of course he's blaming congress. everybody

, warren buffett.ising the tax code so that the wealthiest americans are taxed at the same rate as those who get a paycheck, like buffett's secretary, who was a guest of the first lady at the state of the union. governor romney said this is class warfare. and it is social engineering. >> the question to ask them is, we now have the lowest tax rates in 50 years. we have a test of mr. romney or mr. gingrich or mr. santorum's theories. we tried it for ten years. it resulted in a huge crash that lost us the most jobs since the 1930s. and why we would want to adopt something that we just tried and did not work doesn't make sense. >> reporter: a quick question about the family. do they have you on their ring tone now? singing? ♪ so in love with you >> reporter: or were they embarrassed? >> i don't think they were embarrassed. i sure have done more embarrassing things to them than singing a little al green. >> reporter: you told us before the first campaign that sasha had said to you, are you going to be sad

are the democrats already subbing out warren buffett for mitt romney? stick around for the side show. and you're watching it right here on msnbc. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. >>> back to "hardball." now for the side show. slip of the tongue. the day after president obama's state of the union address, had many members of congress on both sides of the aisle answering the question, so what did you think? it was chuck schumer's chance at the mike, he made a point about the buffett rule. if you make more than $1 million a year

then this buffett rule, which is basically a proposal for doubling capital gains rates effectively, at time when even democrats in the senate would be reluctant to that, and we're suffering from not enough business -- >> buffett rule is not targeted to you, rich. he's speaking to -- [everyone talking at once] >> we're going to take the capital gains rate and -- >> even mort would go with that. >> what did you think of the opposition speech? republican speech. >> i thought had it had some very, very good policy stuff in. i agree, i don't think the delivery was exactly inspiring. but it was an intelligent comments. he amongst other things on the economy, the most important thing that he said was we shouldn't get much attention is the complete revision of the tax codes, which is the one thing that we absolutely must have if we're going to revive the economy both consumer and business side. the second thing he said, which again i think was quite interesting, he said the wealthy should start paying for some. things they're getting, like medicare and medicaid. those are things it seems -- [e

buffett?t the country. he doesn't represent the millionaires. he's a multibillionaire. >> you think people like mitt romney should pay 13.9% tax while the rest of us pay in the 30s, 30% to 35%? >> mitt romney should pay the amount of taxes proscribed under the tax code. >> -- and we are more respected in the middle east than ever. >> boris, should the tax code be amended then so other people pay more? >> we need a simpler, flatter tax code. no question about it. eliminate some of the loopholes. make it simple and flatter but don't talk about 1% versus 99% if you want to be a united country. >> karen hunter -- karen finney, excuse me. boris epstein. i was thinking because the way boris was talking i was thinking karen hunter was here. thanks so much. just a programming note, coming up at the top of the hour, alex wagner will talk with richard cordray head of the consumer protection bureau. that's coming up with alex wagn wagner. >>> developing news out of texas where rainstorms have led to stre

warren >> buffett's secretary -- >> warren buffett's secretary pays higher tax rates than her boss.oria colby? >> not well for romn. he is going to be d dogged by this through the campaign. he is a poster boy ifor what people say is wrong with the system income inenequality, structure is not as progressive as it shouldld b burie. republicans will come up with a nominee that they will have a lot ofd work to do -- >> everybody aspires to be where mitt romneyy is. >> yes and i in other cycles this may not be as much of the liability, if it becomes one. i think in this environment, where you have in public opion polls a sense from the public that they don't think their kids are going to make it, that's no a a good place. the other thing is that it is everything around the numbe that these guys play by totally different roles from the rest of us. >> populists are right about the game irigged in congress. pay on capital gains and not in, is outrageous, it needs to be changed. protecting it tax x breaks f for billionaires -- that part isot wrwrong. >> which is why republican proposals for

>> he will have to talk about this buffett rule, this mitt romney rule.act is, that what we have to do is talk fairness in the country, it's not a politics of envy but there's a politics of fairness, those that are working and laboring deserve fair wages in the nation. >> thank you so much, a programming note, melissa's new show launches february fourth and you can read her work on "the nation.com" we will have the state of the union coverage here on msnbc, thanks for your time, i'll see you here tomorrow at 11:00 eastern. don't go anywhere because "now" with alex is coming up. alex what do you have? >> thanks, thomas. w my day bega. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ i had[ designer ]eeling enough of just covering up my moderate to severe so, where to next? plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically