138 American millionaires take to the streets to demand more taxes
138 American millionaires marched to Capitol Hill to demand that Congress increase their income taxes... “for the national good”.
Millionaires gathered on Capitol Hill to demand that the US Congress impose more taxes on the rich - Photo: Getty Images.
“Do the right thing”, “Raise our taxes”, that is the message that these American millionaires sent to President Barack Obama and the leaders of the US Congress on November 16 (US time). These millionaires emphasized that they have benefited for too long from the “too favorable” tax laws that the US has given them for a long time, now they want other millionaires to do the same, which is to pay more taxes to the national treasury.
“We want to pay more taxes. If you are lucky enough to make more than $1 million a year, you should pay more taxes,” said California billionaire Doug Edwards, former Google marketing director.
According to CNN, these millionaires want Congress to repeal the tax cut for the rich that has existed since the time of President George W. Bush, a tax law that the American people are too upset when describing it as "too indulgent" the wealthy class in America. They also call on lawmakers to reject any request for no tax increase that the 12-member bicameral supercommittee will make. According to the New York Times, this supercommittee has until November 23 to consider and decide: either cut the budget deficit by $ 1,200 billion over the next 10 years or the government will risk falling into crisis when it is unable to pay.
“If the supercommittee's bill is not to raise taxes on us, we will ask the Americans around us to boycott this bill,” warned Eric Schoenberg, an associate professor at Columbia Business School in New Jersey.
The Patriotic Millionaires was formed in 2010 with the goal of pushing the US Congress to repeal the tax cuts for wealthy Americans that were put in place under President George W. Bush. The 138 millionaires who joined the group sent a letter of appeal to the supercommittee and the US Congress. However, their letter was met with a deafening silence from Republicans, who control the House of Representatives and have never agreed to higher taxes on wealthy Americans, arguing that raising taxes on the wealthy would kill America’s job creation plan, a fallacy that the Patriotic Millionaires have strongly rejected.
In October 2011, American billionaire Warren Buffett sparked the idea of imposing more taxes on the rich in America when he publicly disclosed his income and tax rates to prove that the rich are currently paying very little tax. AFP reported that in a letter to a member of the US Congress, Mr. W. Buffet said his income in 2010 was 62.8 million USD, of which taxable income was 39.8 million USD after deductions. The total tax that this billionaire paid was 6.9 million USD, or 17.3%.
He said that this tax rate is very low, even lower than that of one of his secretaries! “It would be very useful for the dialogue on tax reform if more super-rich people also disclosed their tax rates. There are clearly many billionaires in the US who pay taxes even lower than my tax rate, and having their tax bills could be useful in the issue of fair tax policy planning - Mr. W. Buffett emphasized.
In 2008, the United States had 400 billionaires but they paid only 21.4% in income tax, a total of $227 million. Mr. W. Buffett believes that Americans with incomes higher than $1 million should pay higher taxes. "My friends and I have been pampered by a Congress long enough. Now it is time for the government to call on the wealthy to sacrifice fairly," Mr. Buffett emphasized.
According to Tuoi Tre