December 14, 2010 2:22 PM

Obama Meets with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet

By
Stephanie Condon
Topics
Economy ,
White House ,
Obama Administration

Here Warren Buffet, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft Corp., are pictured while flipping over Dairy Queen Blizzard treats at the branch opening in Beijing on Sept. 30, 2010. The popular dessert franchise is owned by Buffet.

(Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

President Obama met with billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in the Oval Office this morning, according to the White House.

The president invited the wealthy philanthropists to the White House to discuss the "Giving Pledge," an initiative they launched to encourage rich Americans to donate the majority of their wealth to good causes.

The group also discussed ways to grow the economy and keep America competitive, such as investments in education and investing in sectors with opportunity for growth.

Buffet, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has said the rich should pay more in taxes and that the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire for the wealthiest Americans. President Obama has endorsed a plan he cut with congressional Republicans to temporarily extend all of the tax cuts.

Today's meeting comes ahead of a meeting Mr. Obama will have tomorrow with about 20 CEOs, including Intel's Paul Otellini, Google's Eric Schmidt, Comcast's Brian Roberts and PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi.


Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com. You can read more of her posts here. Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter.

Add a Comment
by olyboy December 14, 2010 5:30 PM EST
These two are hardly representative of the group the dems identify as the heartless and undeserving wealthy (those earning over $250,000). To suggest that billionaires have anything in common with the rest of the prclaimed nasty "wealthy" is like saying a kid with a father from Africa and a white upper middleclass hippy mother had the same experience growing in Hawaii as a kid growing up in the ghettos of Cleveland. It's insulting to suggest it. If Gates and Buffet give up half their wealth, they still have billions....
Reply to this comment
by acn0211 December 16, 2010 12:36 PM EST
The sad thing is that none of these guys said a word, or opened their mouths when the public debate was going on. These super-rich thrive on profits like never before in history. The super-rich never think twice before they fire their employees... to multiply their profits. Just imagine... when the country was going through a recession, corporates made the best ever (1.7 Trillion) profits. When unemployment is at its worst, top-executives were paying themselves in Millions, even billions in compensation and bonuses. Even while the ordinary citizen was hurting, the corporates and their owners accumulating. And, to add insult to injury, they want the tax-cut for billionaires extended.
by realist51 December 14, 2010 2:41 PM EST
instead of giving to charity how about creating 5 million jobs with a 20 dollar an hour wage with healthcare benefits and pensions and let these people that have to depend on unemployment,welfare and no jobs take care of them selves. stupid!
Reply to this comment
by forsanity1 December 14, 2010 5:22 PM EST
So the jobs will last ... how long?

You are talking a hundred million an hour. Even the richest ten Americans combined, giving away all their money couldn't sustain this for very long, especially adding benefits.

Better to use the money to teach people how to create their own businesses or successful enterprises. It's the teach 'em to fish, don't throw 'em the fish idea.
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