According to an ABCNews "Breaking" Notice...

[Frustratedlady]

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

WARREN BUFFETT REPORTEDLY SAYS HE WILL GIVE AWAY 85 PERCENT OF HIS MORE THAN $40 BILLION FORTUNE

Shall we form a line?

[marmar]

1. My request is a modest one....

$15 million and a canalside apartment in Amsterdam. That's all I need.

[shaniqua6392]

2. I will take a little bit!

I think he will follow the lead of Bill Gates and it will all go to foreign countries instead of to Americans who may need help. I wish they would use some of it to help average Americans start small businesses. That would be a wonderful thing for America, but they are not focused on us. Oh well. I guess we have to go to work tomorrow!!

[skids]

7. Save the American coders!

There is so much a charitably funded OpenSource organization could do. Many of the people contributing some of the most important software in use today are doing so at best with spare time granted to them by their day jobs... imagine what they could acheive if they were working instead for a well funded nonprofit.

[Warpy]

3. My request is a modest one, too

but it requires he do a little more work than just signing it over to someone else's foundation.

My request is that he match Scaife dollar for dollar in funding campus groups, think tanks, and publications dedicated to undoing the harm Scaife has done to this country.

That will do more for this country and the people in it than anything else he or the Gates Foundation can possibly do. It won't cost him that much, either, leaving his donation to that foundation intact.

Please consider it, Mr. Buffett.

[RandomKoolzip]

6. Damn...beat me to it.

I was just going to suggest the very same thing, except that I was going to suggest he set up a rival religion to siphon followers away from Rev. Moon's organization as well.

Anyways, the best thing a liberal billionaire could do right now would be to set up a foundation system for ideas on the left to do battle with the right's juggernaut.

[DemReadingDU]

4. cnn link

giving away 85% of his wealth in July - most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes



While that is honorable and admirable, couldn't some of the wealth be used to support fixing the levees in New Orleans?

[Totally Committed]

5. I'd be grateful if he'd Pay off the Nat'l. Debt, and then

bankroll a Democratic Candidate for POTUS. My guess is, that would leave him enough to live on for the rest of his life...

TC

[NCarolinawoman]

9. I believe he was a Clark and Kerry supporter.

I think he also was a supporter of Dean and the DNC. His wife, who died in the summer of '04, was a contributor to WesPac. She kept Warren grounded. He was into making money, but neither one was materialistic. They always lived a middle class lifestyle.

In the wonderful interview Buffet's wife did on the Charlie Rose show, right before she died, she explained how she opened her husband's eyes up to eventually becoming a Democrat. Neither one could stand Bush and his policies.

I've read that their children are not very materialistic either. You may know that Warren Buffet is a fan of Jimmy Buffet, who is a cousin. Jimmy is also a Dem who contributed to Wes Clark's campaign back in the primaries.

( I got most of this information from the WALL STREET JOURNAL and the interview on Charlie Rose.)

[Totally Committed]

10. Yes, but I thought he was worth more than $40 Billion, or

I wouldn't have suggested paying down the debt. LOL!

I still can't believe a REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION has run up a debt of Trillions just for a stinking, stupid, illegal war. More to the point, I can't believe the Congress LET THEM.

Anyway, $40 Billion won't cut it.

I was so foolish!

TC

[Frustratedlady]

11. Read this letter to his children...

who also have their own foundations.

http://berkshirehathaway.com/donate/sabltr.pdf

The other letters are on:

http://berkshirehathaway.com/donate/webdonat.html

[globalvillage]

13. I heard he (Warren, not Jimmy) lives in the same house

he bought back in the day for 36K. That's pretty amazing.

Jimmy, I think, lives in Margaritaville.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. No need for a line. He's mailing the check to me.

[kentuck]

12. The Republican Congress should pass a law preventing him from doing....

...such a reckless act? They could pass a law stating that a wealthy person cannot give away wealth - they can only accumulate wealth. If a person wished to do so, he would be taxed at the same rate and the proceeds from the tax would be equally divided amongst the top 1%, just as if it were a taxcut. It could be put to more productive means if the wealth is in the hands of entrepreneurs and those that create jobs. It would be better used in the hands of the wealthy - rather than give the money away to needy people. They could pass a law.... :sarcasm: maybe?