Warren Buffet is specifically talking about federal income taxes, not payroll taxes such as Social Security and Medicare, which can be considered benefits because people contributing will get a return when they retire (it's actually a progressive system, in which the poor get more than what they contribute).
"Comparisons of national wealth are also frequently made on the basis of nominal GDP, which does not reflect differences in the cost of living in different countries (See List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita). Using a PPP basis is arguably more useful when comparing generalized differences in living standards on the whole between nations because PPP takes into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rates of the countries, rather than using just exchange rates which may distort the real differences in income."
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3213&type=0&sequenc...
These federal income taxes aren't lies.
http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html