Soak the Rich: Patriotic Millionaires

When it comes to debt, the United States government is in deep. How can we afford the vast welfare state that makes America great? Senator Sherrod Brown and President Barack Obama have this bold idea...

The projected 2011 budget deficit is $1.62 trillion – with a T – if you believe the extremist anti-government crusaders in the White House Office of Management and Budget:

The Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Budget Chart Book has plenty more charts filled with “numbers” and “math” and every kind of capitalist propaganda. Dedicated Progressives should ignore the lot of it… but you knew that already!

A group we can trust is Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength. They are good millionaires, as proven by their lobbying for increased taxes. Unfortunately, since we’ve got a $1,620,000,000,000 hole in fiscal 2011 alone, the chubby-cats on the Patriotic Millionaires bandwagon won’t make much difference.

Consider this: in 2009, 7.8 million American households had a net worth of $1,000,000 or more. That’s a much broader target than the folks making a million in a single year, and it’s guaranteed to include families outside President Obama’s arbitrary definition of “wealthy.” Most are Americans who have worked and saved for decades and already pay thousands in federal income tax each year. Still, we could take a cool $100,000 from every millionaire household… and it would cover less than half this year’s deficit.

This won’t do. Not only would it produce too little revenue, 7.8 million households equals too many voters for Senator Brown and President Obama to alienate. That’s why a serious soaking of the rich requires serious fat-cats – like the CEOs taking home tens of millions a year and the S&P 500 corporations who employ them. We’ll get started next week!

Meanwhile, one thing about the Patriotic Millionaires hoopla confuses me. If you’re desperate to give the government more money, why not just do it? The United States Treasury has an online form for donations to reduce the public debt. If the Patriotic Millionaires stand by this proud message:

WE SHOULD PAY MORE,
WE WANT TO PAY MORE…

...then seriously, gang. Pay.gov. Go wild.

Cross-posted at that hero.