Warren Buffett had answered that question before I got around to asking it. In an interview on PBS News Hour, he said, “They (members of Congress) have given themselves a big, big tax cut, if they—if they voted for this.”
He pointed out that members of Congress earn, at a minimum, $174,000 per year. The taxes that would be repealed under the proposed health care bill are those levied on incomes of more than $200,000 for an individual or $250,000 for a couple. Buffett surmises that with a congressional income of at least $174,000 per year, most legislators exceed the $200-250,000 threshold with income from other activities.
Mystery solved!
And as a side note, Buffett pointed out that if the bill that passed the House recently had been in effect for 2016, he would have saved approximately $680,000—more than 17% of his tax bill. “You could entitle this, you know, Relief for the Rich Act or something, because it—I have got friends where it would have saved them as much as—it gets into the $10-million-and-up figure.”
(Source: Business Insider, 6/28/17)