Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway

Omaha, NE

Dear Mr. Buffett,

I have been a follower of yours for many years.  Your investing acumen is legendary and inspirational.  And, as an intermittent investor in Berkshire Hathaway, you have made me money.  So I read with interest your OpEd piece, "Stop Coddling The Super Rich",  in the NY Times.

I am disappointed in what I read.  While it may be commendable to suggest that you are willing to pay more taxes, I am at a loss to understand why you don't just send more money to the Federal Government if you think this is the right thing to do.  Why must there be a legislative event, such as the change in the tax rate, as a prerequisite for you paying more than the minimum amount?

According to you, you paid $6.9 million in federal taxes last year, which amounted to 17.4% of your taxable income.  If I do my math correctly that means that you reported a taxable income of nearly $40 million.  Why don't you just send in an additional $10 million or $20 million?  Why do you need an act of Congress?

You also mentioned talking to your "mega-rich friends" about their tax bills.  Why not organize a citizens response to the debt crisis with your rich friends and write some big checks to the federal government?  You could easily come up with hundreds of millions of dollars each year to help "share the burden".

When you agree to donate most of your fortune to several charities you were rightly accorded acclaim for this gesture.  The value of your fortune at that time was over $40 billion.  I wonder, given your missive in the NY Times, why you do not just donate this money to the US Government?  Why is it that you would "gladly" pay a few million dollars more in taxes, but you sequester tens of billions of dollars where they can not be touched by the federal government?

Actions speak louder than words.  I would have more respect for your position if you were organizing actual payments to the federal government rather than pontificating on what Congress should do.  Write a check.  Get your friends to write checks.  You are a trustee on the Gates Foundation - get them to write a check.  

Walk the walk, Mr Buffett, and your words will ring truer.

Respectfully,

Michael Liss