NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Warren Buffett will host a fundraiser for President Obama next month in New York City, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO told CNNMoney on Thursday.
With the 2012 election season just around the corner, the campaign to put Obama back in the White House for a second term is well underway — and it’s not unusual for the campaign to boost the president’s drawing power by allowing him to share the stage with a well known benefactor.
Billed as an “Economic Forum Dinner with Warren Buffett,” the fundraiser will be held at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York and moderated by former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, according to a schedule obtained by Politico.
The event will bring in a pretty penny for the campaign. The base price is $10,000, while a $35,800 donation will buy a VIP reception with Buffett, according to the schedule.
The Democratic National Committee confirmed the fundraiser was happening, but was silent on the details.
Last week, Buffett made clear — in a very high-profile way — that he supports one of Obama’s key policy goals: Higher taxes on the rich.
“My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice,” the Berkshire (BRKA, Fortune 500) founder wrote in a New York Times opinion piece.
On the same day it was published, Buffett’s op-ed became an applause line for Obama, who used it to hammer home his call for higher taxes on the rich.
“You’re paying more than that,” Obama told the crowd at a town hall meeting in Minnesota. “And — now I may be wrong, but I think you’re a little less wealthy than Warren Buffett. That’s just a guess.”
In the past, Obama has consulted Buffett on the economy, including an hour-long session at the White House in 2010 during which Obama gave the Oracle of Omaha a new necktie, because Buffett’s had frayed.
The campaign fundraiser comes just as many other business executives are moving in the opposite direction — taking a pledge to withhold campaign contributions.
Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) CEO Howard Schultz said Wednesday that he has recruited more than 100 CEOs to halt all political campaign contributions until lawmakers, as Schultz puts it, “stop the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C.”
-CNNMoney’s Poppy Harlow and CNN’s Alex Mooney contributed to this report.
Buffett to host high-profile fundraiser for Obama
August 28, 2011 by
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