Obama meets with Buffett, Gates To Discuss Giving Pledge
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ABC News’ Mary Bruce (@marykbruce) Reports:
President Obama hosted the two wealthiest Americans at the White House today to receive an update on the Giving Pledge, the pact to encourage the nation’s wealthiest people to donate the majority of their riches to philanthropy.
Obama met with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss the ways in which private philanthropy can help address the country’s greatest challenges.
Asked by ABC if the president is considering donating his personal wealth to the cause, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney would say only that they met because the president “thinks that what they’re doing is extraordinarily noble and good.”
Buffett and Obama also likely discussed the ongoing deficit-reduction negations, Carney said.
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Why doesn’t Obama press Buffett and Gates to give their money to the U.S. government rather than the Gates Foundation? Afterall, Obama believes the government can spend money more effectively than the private sector…
Also – If Obama thinks that philanthropy is such a great idea, why does he want to decrease tax incentives to do so?
Posted by: tjp612 | July 18, 2011, 6:03 pm 6:03 pm
Why doesn’t Obama press Buffett and Gates to give their money to the U.S. government rather than the Gates Foundation? Afterall, Obama believes the government can spend money more effectively than the private sector…
Posted by: tjp612 | Jul 18, 2011 6:03:49 PM
It’s because he has a much more complex understanding of how things work than you pretend. You’re just speaking your bias.
Posted by: Art | July 18, 2011, 6:24 pm 6:24 pm
It’s because he has a much more complex understanding of how things work than you pretend. You’re just speaking your bias.
Posted by: Art | Jul 18, 2011 6:24:32 PM
Obama is the least qualified person in any meeting he attends. Obama is an idealogue, not a complex thinker…
Try expanding your source of news beyond the Organizing for America newsletter.
Posted by: tjp612 | July 18, 2011, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm
Posted by: tjp612 | Jul 18, 2011 6:37:43 PM
You asked a dumb, smear question. I gave you the legitimate reply.
Obama consults with Gates and Buffett about this initiative because he has a much more complex understanding of how things work than your knee-jerk nonsense.
Posted by: Art | July 18, 2011, 6:40 pm 6:40 pm
Bill Gates said that The Gates Foundation is much more effective and less bureaucratic than the US Government! Maybe more of the Government could be privatized to save money and get better results!
Posted by: Voice_Reason | July 18, 2011, 6:49 pm 6:49 pm
Obama consults with Gates and Buffett about this initiative because he has a much more complex understanding of how things work than your knee-jerk nonsense.
Posted by: Art | Jul 18, 2011 6:40:52 PM
Well, Art, perhaps you can enlighten the rest of us what this “complex understanding of how things work” is because I, for one, do not see any complex understanding about anything from Obama.
If Obama has such “complex understanding of how things work” why was his trillion dollar “Stimulus” a failure (the “stimulus” that was supposed to prevent unemployment from exceeded 8%)? Why is unemployment still above 9% (with no signs of dropping below 8% before the end of next year)? Why is GDP growth lagging at less than historical levels?
Any insight would be appreciated, particularly insight that does not include the knee-jerk “Bush did it” that is all the libs/Leftists can offer as an excuse for the failure that is Obama…
Posted by: tjp612 | July 18, 2011, 6:50 pm 6:50 pm
Posted by: tjp612 | Jul 18, 2011 6:50:04 PM
“The nonpartisan CBO has confirmed that the Recovery Act delivered as promised, lowering the unemployment rate by as much as 2 percent, boosting GDP by as much as 4 percent and creating and saving as many as 3.6 million jobs.”
You of course would know better because you’re a right winger! And you guys ‘just know’ things. So cool.
Posted by: Art | July 18, 2011, 6:57 pm 6:57 pm
If only those guys send their $ to the IRS. That’s what we need in this country!
Posted by: Easy $ | July 18, 2011, 7:06 pm 7:06 pm
art wrote:”perhaps it would be best if just looked at this meeting the President had with Gates and Buffett and the discussions they had”
.
Looks like oBama sat in this meeting and picked his nose while Buffett explained how things work to him. No sign of the teleprompter in the room, so we know for sure that oBama did not contribute anything to the discussion other than…ummmm….errrr….uhhhhh.. Warren can you write that down for me?
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | July 18, 2011, 7:19 pm 7:19 pm
“The nonpartisan CBO has confirmed that the Recovery Act delivered as promised, lowering the unemployment rate by as much as 2 percent, boosting GDP by as much as 4 percent and creating and saving as many as 3.6 million jobs.”
Posted by: Art | Jul 18, 2011 6:57:16 PM
Do you inhabit an alternate universe?
Unemployment pre-”stimulus”: 9%
Do you have a source for your CBO figures? Or do you just make things up as you go along (kind of like the Perpetual Campaigner’s claim 80% of public favor increased taxes and cuts to reduce deficits)?
“Jobs saved”? Really? LOL! I “saved” money today by not buying a Maserati!
Posted by: tjp612 | July 18, 2011, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
Art:
Unemployment pre-”stimulus”: LESS than 8%
Unemployment post-”stimulus”: GREATER than 9%
Is this your definition of “success”?
Posted by: tjp612 | July 18, 2011, 7:56 pm 7:56 pm
Yes, give up all your money to Gates….never mind the cold hard facts.
“GENEVA (AP) – A $21.7 billion development fund backed by celebrities and hailed as an alternative to the bureaucracy of the United Nations sees as much as two-thirds of some grants eaten up by corruption, The Associated Press has learned.”
Posted by: Footie Hill | July 18, 2011, 8:03 pm 8:03 pm
Oh and btw, the Gates are heavily invested in the Pharmaceutical sector………which coincidentially stands to earn the Gates a huge profit on his Foundations push to global health care and the Obama health scam. No surprise considering Gates stold the technology to start Microsoft. What do you expect from a theif?
Posted by: Footie Hill | July 18, 2011, 8:05 pm 8:05 pm
Posted by: tjp612 | Jul 18, 2011 7:56:36 PM
Pre-stimulus – hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost every month, month after month
Post-stimulus – millions of jobs added
Posted by: Art | July 18, 2011, 8:18 pm 8:18 pm
No surprise considering Gates stold the technology to start Microsoft. What do you expect from a theif?
Posted by: Footie Hill | Jul 18, 2011 8:05:50 PM
Nice couple of sentences footie.
Posted by: Barnie | July 18, 2011, 8:23 pm 8:23 pm
Giving it away is nice enough, can’t fault them for that but it also prevents the government going through their pockets at death and I would bet anything that what they give is being written off thier taxes.
I wonder though where the stories of someone with not a lot to give that spots a guy asking for work and buys the man a meal or the woman living on a SS pension that donates items to food banks and homeless shelters?
Everything the President does is with some well known person who frankly has more money than they can ever spend. And then the business round tables he host-has anyone seen a small business person who struggles to make a go of it been spotted at these roundtables? No, CEO’s that are up there with the GE ceo is about all you’ll see.
Posted by: david | July 18, 2011, 9:14 pm 9:14 pm
And then the business round tables he host-has anyone seen a small business person who struggles to make a go of it been spotted at these roundtables? No
Posted by: david | Jul 18, 2011 9:14:18 PM
You’re wrong. Do an internet search of ‘Obama meets with small business’.
Posted by: Peter | July 18, 2011, 10:38 pm 10:38 pm
Why doesn’t Obama press Buffett and Gates to give their money to the U.S. government rather than the Gates Foundation?
That’s an easy question. If Obama ask them to donate,then he will also have to give some of his money to the US Government
Posted by: Lola939 | July 19, 2011, 5:54 am 5:54 am
There is a huge story out that is not getting the coverage from the msm. It is about Democratic businessman Steve Wynn ranting against President Obama. Well worth the read / listen.
abc deleted my post. Maybe it was because I posted a link? Google Steve Wynn Rant.
Posted by: heirloomfurniture | July 19, 2011, 8:05 am 8:05 am
Buffett and Obama also likely discussed the ongoing deficit-reduction negations, Carney said.
Posted by: Jail Nation | July 19, 2011, 8:47 am 8:47 am
“to discuss the ways in which private philanthropy can help address the country’s greatest challenges.”
Not only is the President willing to dig deeper onto deep pockets of people who earned their fortune, he is discussing how they should spend it. My only amazement is why these two were so willing to submit to such a spectacle. The irony is that excesses of the current spending binge will trickle down to the “little people” of Helmsley, they just don’t realize it quite yet.
Posted by: curtis41 | July 19, 2011, 12:16 pm 12:16 pm
GREED is killing America. Nron, wall street, republicans. All killing this country. Corporate America doesn’t care about America as a nation. For them its business and America is the medium to be rich. They don’t want to pay taxes, they don’t want to invest, they don’t want to hire. They want to fleece, when in trouble they get bailed out by the same population they fleece and pray upon. When they survive with their fat bonuses they donate it to the Republican party so they don’t pay taxes. America is rotting because of GREED.
Posted by: doma | July 19, 2011, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
Didn’t he ask his boss Geoege Soros to the meeting as well.
Shame on Obama calling the despised rich by the leftwing to the White House.
According to the left The rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes but they do and also get tax breaks because of the millions and billions the donate every year to the sorts of things Obama is trying to get their pledge. Plus they provide all the jobs in large corperations contrary to the lies the left claims.
Posted by: RevTech | July 19, 2011, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
“”"”"saving as many as 3.6 million jobs.”"”"”"
Posted by: Art
I hope Obama doesn’t stop quickly, you might just run into his backside. Can’t you bots say anything bad about any policiy? I really enjoyed your “as many as 3.6 million”. I believe the low estimate (because garbage in is garbage out) 1.4 million, about 40% of Obama’s own projection. If you are going to tell the truth, don’t cherry pick. Also, there is absolutely no way to prove this because many of the state union jobs he supposedly “saved” are now being eliminated, which would certainly drop those numbers. The stimulus did not stimulate, hence the economic stagnation right now. That’s the whole truth.
Posted by: commonsenseparty | July 19, 2011, 2:23 pm 2:23 pm
THe Giving Pledge Big O wants from Warren BUFFET, is money for his re-election campaign. Billionaire activists like Sorryos, Buffet, Gates ect. want leftist socialist Demorats in power, because they’re rich enough to stay rich regardless of how much the State steals from the working class to give to the worthless class. Nice.
Posted by: SavageNation | July 19, 2011, 5:34 pm 5:34 pm
Why not Steve Wynn??? What’s Obama afraid of???
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