Business

Jamie Dimon backs ‘Buffett Rule’ to raise taxes on millionaires to pay national debt

By
Ariel Zilber
Published Aug. 15, 2024, 12:34 p.m. ET

Billionaire b💙anking executive Ja𝔉mie Dimon said he supports soaking the rich in order to pay down the national debt.

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase said he backs the so-called “Buffett Rule” that would require anyone who earns more than $1 million annually to pay a minimum effective tax rate of 30% on their income.

Bringing down the debt, which recently surpassed $35.12 trillion, while maintaining robust spending on defense, infrastructure and earned income tax credits is “doable,” Dimon

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said he supports raising taxes on the wealthy in order to pay down the national debt.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said he supports raising taxes on the wealthy in order to pay down the national debt. AFP/Getty Images
Dimon said he backs the so-called "Buffett Rule," named after billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.
Dimon said he backs the so-called “Buffett Rule,” named after billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. REUTERS

“I would spend the money that helped make it a better country,” the 68-year-old JPMorgan chief said, adding that he favors a “competitive international tax system.”

“And you would maybe just raise taxes a little bit, like the Warren Buffett type of rule,” he said.

“I would do that. And we would be fine.”

In 2012, the known as “the Buffett rule” whose “basic principle” stated that “no household making over $1 million annually should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.”

The rule, which was never passed into law due to lack ജof congressional supꦆport, is a reference to an interview which the outlining his views on income inequality in America.

Buffett, whose🌼 net worth was at $138 billion as of Wednesday, noted that while he paid a tax rate of 17.4%, his secretary, Debbie Bosanek, paid a rate of 35.8% of her income.

In 2011, Buffett noted that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, Debbie Bosanek, who is seen seated left next to Laurene Powell Jobs at the January 2012 State of the Union address.
In 2011, Buffett noted that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, Debbie Bosanek, who is seen seated left next to Laurene Powell Jobs at the January 2012 State of the Union address. REUTERS

Sitting alongside Bosanek, Buffett, who showed his tax returns to the Disney-owned news operation, said: “I have never had it so good. … What has happened in recent years, we were told a rising tide would lift all boats, but the rising tide has lifted all yachts.”

Bosanek was invited by then-Pres🐭ident Barack Obama to his January 2012 State of the Union address, where she was seated alongside Laurene Powell Jobs and then-First Lady Michelle Obama.

But the tax code appears to have b𒊎ecome more progressive in recent years as wealꦚth inequality has gotten worse.

The US national debt recently surpassed $35 trillion. The image above is of an electronic billboard seen in Atlanta.
The US national debt recently surpassed $35 trillion. The image above is of an electronic billboard seen in Atlanta. Getty Images for the Peter G. Petersonꦆ Foundation

For the 2021 tax year, the Internal Revenue Service issued a report which said that the top 1% of income earners paid a tax rate of 25.9% — which is nearly eight times higher than the 3.3% average rate paid by the bottom 50%.

The last time the US government recoౠrded a budget surplus was in fiscal year 2001. At the time, the US had a sꦍurplus of $128 billion.

Since then, however, the Sept. ཧ11 attacks and the subsequent war on terror, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, a major recession brought on by the collapse of the housing market, th🌼e bailing out of the US auto industry, COVID-19 and other crises led to a burgeoning national debt.