Warren Buffett Says Rich People Should Pay Higher Taxes

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said that wealthy Americans should pay more in taxes and that the Bush-era tax cuts for high-earners should expire, Bloomberg News reported.

"People at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it," Buffett said in an interview with ABC's "This Week With Christiane Amanpour" that is scheduled to air on Nov. 28.

"If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further," Buffett said.

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All of the Bush-era tax cuts are due to expire. President Barack Obama has proposed extending the cuts for all but the highest earners. Republicans have insisted that the cut for the highest earners should also continue.

"The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you," Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in the interview. "But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to take up Obama's proposal after Thanksgiving.

Buffet has joined Bill Gates, formerly the world's richest person, in calling on America's billionaires to give more to charity, rather than pass on their wealth to their families.