Is Warren Buffett a Hypocrite?

A NY Post opinion piece essentially makes this accusation.

Here are the facts behind the accusation.

1. Mr. Buffett had an opinion piece in the NY Times advocating greater taxation rates on the income of rich.

2. Mr. Buffett had some sloppy language in the article, for example, failing to make a distinction between 'income' and 'income from wages' and failing to precisely and and consistently use the term rich.

3. The company that Mr Buffett heads, Berkshire Hathaway, is in a tax dispute with the IRS with the company (not a surprise) claiming a lower tax liability and the IRS claiming a higher one.

I don't see the hypocrisy. The sloppiness in the opinion piece is just sloppiness and a lot of opinion pieces have about the same level of imprecision, etc. The fact is that Buffett pays the taxes for which he is personally liable and Berkshire Hathaway will pay any taxes for which a court finds them liable (and there are legitimate reasons why a company and the IRS may interpret statutory language differently). Advocating higher marginal rates (or lower rates for that matter) is just advocacy, plain and simple.

NY Post opinion piece here.
Buffett's opinion piece in the NY Times here.

NYTimes Columnist Apologizes and Admits Hypocrisy

A number of columnists or elected officials have called the Tea Party 'terrorists' or similar names. One of them was Joe Nocera.

He was accused of being a hypocrite for previously calling for civility. He apparently thought about it and decided the criticism of him was correct and he apologized for it.

Interestingly, Froma Harrop says that she is not a hypocrite because she defines 'civility' as simply letting people have their say when they are speaking (so apparently she could call people names subsequently to their speaking and not be incivil)

Column where Mr Nocera apologizes for hypocrisy is here.

Ms Harrop's post where she defines civility in a post called "am I uncivil" is here.
Blogger Ed Morrisey points out that Ms. Harrop who defines civility as 'letting people have their say', ended up deleting all the comments to her blog that complain about this definition, which would make her a 'comment deletion hypocrite'.

Is Froma Harrop a Civility Hypocrite?

This is a case similar to one involving a former US representative. It is different in that case, the 'uncivil speech' preceded the criticism of 'uncivil speech'. In this case, the criticism of 'uncivil speech' was followed by 'uncivil speech'.

But first, something about Froma Harrop. She is a journalist who did reportage journalism for some years but has since become an opinion journalist and editorial writer. As a vigorous proponent of single provider health care and of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, she is considered a left leaner or solid left opinion journalist.

In April 2011, Ms Harrop was named president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. The new mission of that organization was the Civility Project (NCEW) which is to improve the quality of political discourse (implicitly to make discourse more civil).

Here is part of what Ms Harrop said in a recent opinion piece,

"... The tea party Republicans have engaged in economic terrorism against the United States -- threatening to blow up the economy if they don't get what they want. And like the al-Qaida bombers, what they want is delusional: the dream of restoring some fantasy caliphate in which no one pays taxes, while the country is magically protected from foreign attack and the elderly get government-paid hip replacements..."

whether Ms Harrop is a hypocrite depends on whether she believes the Republican position (that federal spending should be reduced) is within what have been called the Overton window which is the range of legitimate opinion on a particular issue. It seems to me that Ms Harrop may believe that no rational person could believe that federal spending should be curtailed during a weak recovery (notwithstanding that a large number of Americans feel this way and notwithstanding the fact that Ms Harrop seems to feel that tax increases during a weak recovery are rational and reasonable). If she does feel this way, she may feel that 'civility' is only due rational people. Of course, if she feels this way, it would be nice to have that statement on the NCEW website (it isn't, nor is any statement of what 'civility' is).

Bottom line. She may or may not be a hypocrite depending on some definitions and what is going on in her head.


April 2011 article in Rhode Island newspaper discussing Harrop's appointment is here.

Aug 2 2011 opinion piece by Harrop is here.

The Civility Project page of the NCEW is here.

A Civility Project page with the beginning of a definition of civility is here.

The Wikipedia article on the Overton Window is here.