Billionaire Warren Buffett Calls It 'Outrageous' His Secretary Pays 2x's His Tax Rate – 'If This Is A War, My Side Has The Nuclear Bomb'

Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world and widely regarded as one of the savviest investors of all time, isn't shy about speaking his mind. But for years, he's been using his platform not to celebrate his financial success but to call out a system that unfairly benefits the wealthy – including himself.

In 2012, Buffett made headlines when he revealed a startling truth: his secretary, Debbie Bosanek, paid a far higher tax rate than he did. "Debbie works just as hard as I do and she pays twice the rate I pay. I think that's outrageous," he told ABC News after her appearance in President Obama's State of the Union address. 

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He explained, "I don't pay hardly any payroll taxes. Gov. Romney hardly pays any payroll taxes. Newt Gingrich hardly pays any payroll taxes." Driving the point home, he emphasized the disparity: "Debbie pays lots of payroll taxes." 

Buffett's effective tax rate was 17.4% at the time, largely due to his income coming from capital gains, which are taxed much lower than ordinary wages. Bosanek, like many middle-class Americans, was paying nearly 36% when payroll and income taxes were combined.

According to a CBS News report, Buffett quickly clarified that he didn't blame Romney for following the law. "I don't blame Gov. Romney for paying the tax rate he paid," Buffett said. "I blame the U.S. Congress."

The disparity didn't bother Buffett – it drove him to advocate for sweeping changes to the tax code. In an op-ed for The New York Times, he argued for what would become known as the "Buffett Rule," a proposal to implement a minimum 30% tax on incomes exceeding $1 million. President Obama backed the idea, but opposition in Congress kept it from moving forward.

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Buffett didn't hold back when discussing the inequities of the system. "If this is a war – I wouldn't call it a war, I'd call it a struggle – but if this is a war, my side has the nuclear bomb," he said. "We've got K Street, we've got lobbyists, we've got money on our side in terms of lobbyists. Deb doesn't have a lobbyist. She doesn't have anybody remotely that's representing her."

Buffett's frustration stems from what he sees as systemic unfairness. While regular workers like Bosanek pay higher rates because they rely on wages, those who derive their income from investments benefit from lower capital gains taxes. "People lobby to keep their estate taxes down. They lobby to keep their capital gains taxes down," Buffett explained. "The war has been waged by the people who are very well-to-do, who are trying to shift the burden onto people like [Debbie] and away from themselves."

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Buffett continued to push for tax reform, insisting that the wealthy should pay more. "People like me should be paying more. Congress has to make the system more equitable," he said. 

At the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting in May 2024, Buffett addressed the company's substantial federal tax contributions. He suggested that if 800 companies matched Berkshire's tax payments, "no other person in the United States would have had to pay a dime of federal taxes – no income taxes, no social security taxes, no estate taxes."

Buffett also expressed concerns about the growing fiscal deficit, indicating that higher taxes might be on the horizon. He noted, "They may decide that someday they don't want the fiscal deficit to be this large because that has some important consequences." 

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