August 16, 2003

Club of Growth's Stephen Moore on Buffett's blunder:

"It was kind of our worst nightmare coming true."

From LA Times coverage of the blowup over Billionaire Buffett's implied suggestion that Prop 13 should be eliminated and property taxes in California should be steeply raised. Some reaction from California voters:

"I don't know why this would be an issue in the governor's race," said Chuck Scheid, 76, a Huntington Beach homeowner for 40 years. "Anyone that talks about eliminating Prop. 13 is pretty much dead on arrival."

Sharon Ashford, a writing instructor and Granada Hills mother of three, said much the same thing.

"The fact of the matter is that 99% of Californians are regular working-class people who struggle to buy their first home and struggle during the first years to keep up with the mortgage and taxes," she said. "Raising property taxes is not the answer because it puts too much pressure on families."

And here is the SacBee story on the Buffett blowup.

And from the AP, including this:

"He takes the risk of being perceived as an empty vessel, a smart but empty vessel, into which Warren Buffett, George Shultz and Pete Wilson can pour their ideas."

From the Chronicle:

The flap over Buffett's comments only enhance the suspicions among conservative Republicans that Schwarzenegger is not a true California-style Republican committed to the no-tax, cut-spending philosophy that has been the mainstay of the state's GOP.

And the Mercury News.

[Kris] Vosburgh [executive director of the Jarvis taxpayer group] called Buffett's comments a ``slap at Proposition 13 and the two-thirds of voters who voted to pass it. What we're talking about is one of the world's richest men, and it's clear he's out of touch with the average working Californian.''

And Mark Martin in the Chronicle:

Buffett, the billionaire investor, hit one of the deepest political nerves there is in California. "Those are fighting words," proclaimed Ted Costa, an anti-tax advocate who helped implement Prop. 13 and also kick-started the recall effort this year. "That doesn't play well in California. He [Schwarzenegger] needs a new script."
Posted by Greg Ransom