Politics

Bill Gates on budget: Voters wanting ‘lower taxes’ and ‘all the spending’ is ‘what’s screwing this damn thing up’ [VIDEO]

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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Addressing America’s federal budget issues, billionaire Bill Gates said voters are “schizophrenic” because they want “lower taxes” along with “all the spending”, which he says is “screwing this damn thing up.”

“No one’s solved the budget problems, and so you know where people’s priorities are after they solve the budget problem. You know, everybody’s for everything, pretty much. There’s a few things that people aren’t for but the voters are certainly schizophrenic,” Gates, the wealthiest man in the U.S., said Wednesday at the Washington Ideas Forum.

“You know, they’re for lower taxes and all the spending and no deficit, pretty much. Yeah, that math thing is what’s screwing this damn thing up and so it’s easier to say what the priorities are once you’ve gone through a set of trade-offs.”

Gates delivered remarks on higher education and then participated in a panel discussion where he gave his analysis of public education issues. The Microsoft co-founder, who dropped out of Harvard in 1973, was asked to address the skeptics of formal higher education.

“Taking courses and success aren’t negatively correlated. I love taking courses, I happen to do it outside of a formal degree framework but absolutely it’s great for a lot of kids to go to two year programs,” Gates said.

He also said the Obama administration has delivered “four good years” of education policy.

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