Source on Warren Buffett

“As taxpayers we gave one of Warren Buffet's companies, in 2006, an interest-free loan of $665 million dollars, and he only has to pay half of it back 28 years from now. ...Imagine ...you bought a house in 1980 at the price in 1980. Up until now [2009] you haven't made any payments on the house, and this year you have to pay half in the... dollars you agreed to back then, no adjustment for inflation. Do you think that alone might make you a wealthy man?”

“We gave Warren Buffet (another one of his companies) $100 million gift last year. ...[T]he state of New York had to create a special district in Erie County... [T]he justification for this is that Buffalo has the highest unemployment of the cities in New York state, and this would create jobs. It was a call-center for GEICO insurance... [A] competitor closed down their call-center, so there were no new jobs created, and... they created it in one of the whitest, wealthiest suburbs where there is virtually no public transportation. Again, transferring money up the chain of command, benefiting the second wealthiest man in America.”

“Warren Buffet controls an electric utility that has operations in the Midwest, Utah and Oregon. Oregon passed a law saying whatever income taxes are embedded in the electric rates paid to this monopoly electric company, must be paid to the government, or the ratepayers get the money back. Warren Buffet's fighting that like mad, because he knows... that company can permanently capture those taxes (if they're very smart about how they handle their finances) and enhance their profits.”

“Buffet's electric company in Iowa... There used to be 9 corporate-owned [electric] utilities owned in Iowa. They were rolled up into 2. The people in Johnson City... and 5 or 6 little neighboring communities got together and said, "We want lower electric rates. We've consolidated. Rates should go down." "No way," said the company. So they started organizing to buy out Warren Buffet's company and have municipal power. Everywhere in America that you have municipal power, it's cheaper than corporate [electric] power. Pretty soon they got advice and recommendations and help from the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities... Two prominent Iowa legislators... had a bill that would tax these municipal power agencies, and would hamstring them from any change in their business model... in the future, and that unless they promised to never again help people try to buy out Mr. Buffet's company, they had the votes to get this enacted. ...[A]s Carol Spaziani, the... retired city librarian... and one of the organizers of this drive said, "...I turn on the television and here are these images and these news stories about this beneficent billionaire, Warren Buffet, who is giving away all of this money. What nobody writes about is how he's gouging the people of Johnson City with excessive electricity rates, and that's how he's making his money.”