The “Buffett rule”

It’s very important in terms of getting people to make the kind of sacrifices they’re going to face. We’re going to be telling people that some of the promises are going to have to be modified, and these are people that don’t have a lot of margin of safety in their own affairs. They’re not like me, they can’t just sell a few stocks or something like that if the payment doesn’t come through or this or that. The ultrarich who are paying really subnormal taxes—and there’s a lot of them that aren’t, but there are a lot of them that are—I think it’s a terrible mistake to ask 300 million Americans to tighten their belts and ignore that group.