Buffett Offers to Match GOP Donations to Pay Down National Debt

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Legendary investor Warren Buffett has issued a challenge to GOP legislators, offering to match -- dollar for dollar -- any voluntary contributions made by Republicans in Congress to help pay down the national debt.

Buffett's challenge in Time came in response to Republicans who had teased the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) CEO for his August 2011 New York Times op-ed that called for an increase in taxes on the "super-rich."

Warren Buffett

Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) introduced, as a response to the op-ed, a measure in August called the "Buffett Rule Act" that would provide an option on tax forms for people to voluntarily donate more than their required share in order to help curb the United States' debt.

"It restores my faith in human nature to think that there are people who have been around Washington all this time and are not yet so cynical as to think that [the deficit] can't be solved by voluntary contributions," Buffett told Time.

Buffett even took a jab at GOP leadership when he said that he would go "three for one" on any contributions offered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).

Buffett openly endorsed President Barack Obama in the 2008 election cycle and has attended fundraisers for the incumbent's reelection bid.

-- Written by Joe Deaux in New York.

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