Famed investor Warren Buffett, "the Oracle of Omaha," has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and poked fun at her Republican opponents at a campaign event in Nebraska.
Mr Buffett, a long-time critic of America’s uneven taxation of rich and poor, listed statistics showing the widening income gap as he introduced Mrs Clinton at her first event in Nebraska.
The billionaire despaired at how “millions and millions and millions of Americans have been left behind.”
In her second bid to win the US presidency, Mrs Clinton has pledged to reverse the worsening trend of economic inequality, pitching herself as a champion of the American middle class in her campaign.
“That’s a primary reason - there’s lots of other reasons, but it’s a primary reason - why I’m going to be so delighted when secretary Clinton takes the oath of office,” said Mr Buffett, one of the world’s richest men.
“She will never forget the people who haven’t shared the same way.”
The former US secretary of state lent her support to the proposed rule named after the billionaire investor that would impose a 30 per cent federal tax rate on people earning more than $1 million a year.
100 per cent right
“I want to go even further, because Warren is 100 per cent right,” she said of the businessman’s proposal, accusing Republicans of wanting to go back to “the same failed economic policies again.”
The Buffett rule was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2011 and has been vehemently opposed by Republicans. Illustrating the inequality in the US taxation system, Mr Buffett famously remarked that he pays a lower rate of tax than his secretary.
At Mrs Clinton’s campaign event, the businessman went beyond just supporting the candidate. He criticised the Republican candidates, saying he had seen all their debates and likening them to a comedy act.
"You know, I used to love Abbott and Costello, people like that," said the chairman and chief executive of investment giant Berkshire Hathaway. "Vaudeville was never this good."
He mocked businessman Donald Trump, who is leading in the Republican polls, for bragging about himself "every five minutes."
A veteran Democratic supporter, Mr Buffett supported Mrs Clinton's first Senate campaign in 2000 and her 2008 presidential bid before later endorsed Barack Obama and fundraised for him.
Mrs Clinton joked with supporters in Nebraska, a strongly conservative state, asking them to talk to Republican friends about her.
“First thing you can tell them, as best as you can tell looking under these lights, I don’t have horns,” she said at a rally in Omaha.
The former first lady is battling socialist senator Bernie Sanders in neighbouring Iowa, the first state in the country to nominate candidates in the February 1st caucuses. Mr Sanders has accused Mrs Clinton of being too close to Wall Street and big business interests.
