Buffett will stump for Clinton. How close are their views on the economy?
One of the world’s richest men, Warren Buffett, will campaign for Hillary Clinton this month in Nebraska.
The Omaha World-Herald first reported last week that Buffett, who runs the Berkshire Hathaway empire, will stump for Clinton on Dec. 16 to rally support for her campaign prior to Nebraska’s Democratic caucuses and the state’s primary vote in early March.
A spokesperson for the Clinton campaign confirmed to CNBC Clinton and Buffett will be making a joint appearance.
The Nebraska native has donated tens of thousands of dollars to her super PAC, Ready for Hillary. He predicted last year that Clinton, now in her second bid for the White House, would win the Democratic nomination and the presidency.
“I think that she is the most likely person to be president of the United States,” Buffett told the Fox Business Network in May. “I’m going to vote for her.”
Buffet has been a candid proponent for an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which he said would assist in leveling the playing field between rich and poor, a position he recently revisited in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.
He’s also called for a tax increase for the upper class, a topic that will likely be broached later this month, according to a person associated with Clinton’s election bid.
The billionaire’s stance was first cited when he noted that his secretary paid a higher tax rate then he did, an example he used to call for a 30 percent tax on those making more than $1 million annually, or 35 percent for those making more than $10 million.
President Obama, who went on to name the plan the Buffett Rule, seized on the 2012 initiative to increase tax rates for those on the upper end of the pay scale.
“If you make more than $1 million a year, you should pay at least the same percentage of your income in taxes as middle class families do,” a 2012 White House statement read. “On the other hand, if you make under $250,000 a year – like 98 percent of American families do – your taxes shouldn’t go up.”
In many ways, Clinton also has followed suit. In a July speech meant to lay out her economic policies, she said she supported the Buffett Rule but focused more on closing tax loopholes for the rich than on the Earned Income Tax Credit.
While Clinton and Buffett have often agreed on policy issues like parts of the Buffet Rule, they have differed over raising the minimum wage. President Obama and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have backed an initiative to raise the federal minimum wage to $15, while Clinton has proposed a $12 minimum wage.
“I may wish to have all jobs pay at least $15 an hour,” Buffett wrote in the Journal. “But that minimum would almost certainly reduce employment in a major way, crushing many workers possessing only basic skills.
“The better answer is a major and carefully crafted expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)," he added, "which currently goes to millions of low-income workers."
