It’s not surprising, IMO. Buffet especially comes across as one of the most pragmatic public figures I can think of. Even if he thinks the tax policy is ridiculous he’s not going to pay in more than he’s required (especially into a hilariously inefficient system).
That out of the way it is laughable how little we have done to get a higher tax rate out of the super rich. I get the arguments about “you would only get $X out of it” but I don’t see that as a legitimate argument against something entirely common sense that has a net benefit on taxpayers.
What's crazy is the tax rate for the rich doesn't even need to be the least bit exorbitant, it just needs to exist and do so without loopholes, which isn't a thing right now.
The most frustrating thing about this is that a large majority of Americans either don't know, don't care, and/or completely tolerant of this. It's easy to point to and blame politicians for completely ceding power to the ultra wealthy, but it's us the taxpayers, the electorate, who allow this to happen. We could absolutely fix this. We can elect people of either party who insist on correcting it, but we haven't, we won't, and it's maddening that we allow these so few people dictate every single aspect of our fiscal policy.