I’ve bitched in the past about the super-wealthy’s class war on the rest of us, and even wrote a column titled “Eat the Rich.” So it may come as a surprise that I want to express admiration and support for a group of more than 40 millionaires. They call themselves the “Patriotic Millionaires,” and they’ve written a letter to Pres. Obama, House Speaker Boehner and Sen. Majority Leader Reid, pressing them to “increase taxes on incomes over $1,000,000.” The group includes top Google engineers, actress Edie Falco, producer/director Doug Liman, the founder of Ask.com. Their letter states, “Our country has been good to us. It provided a foundation through which we could succeed. Now, we want to do our part to keep that foundation strong so that others can succeed as we have.” According to the National Journal story linked above, the group Wealth for the Common Good estimates that raising taxes on millionaires could raise $60-80 billion per year in revenue.
As I wrote in the “Eat the Rich” column, it’s well known that wealthy Americans fund many of the nation’s charity organizations, and are compassionate folks. And as I also wrote then, I offer a big, very sincere “thank you” to those people of means who do the right thing by their fellow human beings. Not everyone with money is Donald Trump or some other version of “Insensitive Jerk”; they just get much of the publicity.
This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2011.
60-80 billion? Great, that’ll cover the deficit for about 2 weeks.
Maybe we’ll put Ms. Falco’s name on a drone so that the folks it kills will know who to thank. It is her money, if she wishes to have it spent by the all-knowing Boehner, Reid, and Obama that’s her business. If others millionaires choose to put their money directly into productive endeavors rather than submitting it to the state, that should be their choice, and is in no way less noble.
This country does not have a tax problem. EVERYTHING is taxed. This country has a spending problem. Cut all that spending discussed in your previous post (and then some) and there won’t be a need for raising taxes on the rich. But if Edie Falco and the Patriotic Millionaires are so gung ho on paying more in taxes, they can go right ahead and send a check to Pennsylvania Ave. I’m sure BHO will gladly take their money.
There is nothing stopping these rich libs from giving more of their income to the government. If Gates wants to give all but $1M to the goevrnment, go ahead. Falco should do it too. John Kerry and his wife should give all of their wealth to the governmen t and just live off his Senator salary. Why don’t they do that? Ophrah too! I certainly won’t stop them.
I new that article would bring the wackos out of the woodwork.
Dear Ms. Falco,
1. Write a check to the US Treasury.
2. Shut the fuck up.
Sincerely,
America
DLP,
Here’s a quote from ZeroHedge:
“let’s say we just expropriate ALL corporate profits for Central State spending. Corporations skimmed $1.6 trillion last year, record profits, and companies without GE’s tax-avoidance Panzer divisions foolishly paid some $350 billion in corporate taxes, leaving $1.25 trillion to be expropriated.
Given the $1.6 trillion Federal deficit and the states’ $150 billion deficits, that means taking every dollar of corporate profit would still leave us a $500 billion Government deficit.”
I welcome your SERIOUS proposal, complete with concrete numbers, to eliminate the budget deficit.