Easy to say for a guy who built his wealth starting with an insurance company, which uses government regulation to make most of its money. Wealthy people put their money into the insurance company because life insurance payouts aren't taxable but estate taxes are. Then Buffet's insurance company gets to invest that money in low risk bonds to get basically free money before paying it out. This only exists because of insurance company lobbying - it only adds friction to the system and wastes time and resources, while insurance companies get rich extracting money from the system. This is how Buffet built much of his starting capital.
Then he keeps most of his earnings in the holdings company, and only occasionally pays capital gains. The guy's gamed huge loopholes in the U.S. tax system his whole life, and then has the audacity to say that "the rich" should pay more taxes? Physician, heal thyself.
Edit: Reply instead of downvoting? There's a bunch of not commonly known facts in this comment and it's getting some downs, a non-fact progressive viewpoint is getting some ups... that's got to be the most disappointing thing about HN lately, the trend towards up/downvoting based on politics and not content in a comment.
And what should he do? He plays the system that's there. At least he's honest enough to say the system that's there is tilted in his favor. But, I do ask the question seriously? Run for government? Fund progressive candidates who would raise tax on higher incomes?
Stick to business and stay out of trying to be a folk hero? Or pay higher tax rates voluntarily to set an example? Campaigning for a tax increase when a lot of his money came from helping people use a tax loophole created by his industry doesn't seem particularly righteous.
That does nothing to solve the overall problem, though. It would give us back Buffett's taxes, but they pale in comparison to the aggregate taxes being avoided by the thousands of other super rich.
As a businessman, he's required to exploit these loopholes, much like a lawyer is required to defend a client they know to be in the wrong. What makes Buffett special is that he, unlike so many other super rich, is choosing to publicly draw attention to the system they all know to be broken.
Also the Gates family seems honest about it too. Bill Gates Sr. (co-chair of the Gates foundation) also advocates changing tax policy, on the logic that every software or biotech company benefited from federally funded research, which they got for free, not to mention those just renting office space to them.
Buffett says the rich should pay more taxes