Patriotic millionaires: higher taxes for me … but also for thee
GOODY TWO SHOES: A group of 138 millionaires who call themselves "Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength," is asking the 12-member Congressional "super committee" to “do the right thing" and “raise our taxes" by ending the Bush tax cuts so as to help the lawmakers reach a bipartisan deal to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade, Reuters reports:
Eric Schoenberg, chairman of CampusWorks, Inc, a higher education technology company, said if Congress ended Bush-era tax cuts it would affect him and his fellow millionaires in the group "about as much as a dead fly interrupts a picnic." …
Phil Villers, founder of Computervision Corp, said: "Those of us who can afford it should step up. That is our message to the super committee. We hope they listen."
But here’s the thing: They are not patriotic enough to voluntarily increase their tax burden by personally donating money to reduce the federal debt – as the Treasury Department already allows. When Daily Caller Michelle Fields approached several of the 24 Patriotic Millionaires who had gone to Washington, DC to make their case with an iPad displaying the Treasury Department’s donation page not one of them coughed up any money on the spot.
One millionaire made the excuse that he doesn’t take all the deductions to which he is already entitled and is “theoretically” paying higher taxes already. Another said he is “very philapthropically active” in addition to paying taxes (as if millions of less well-off Americans can’t say the same). A third couldn’t explain his hypocrisy so he simply attacked the reporter as being “silly.” See for yourself.
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