If you’re making a million dollars or more, this surtax is not going to cause you great suffering. It just isn’t.
I like Harry Reid’s idea for a 5 percent surtax on millionaires.
At a time when everyone is obsessed with budget deficits, this is the most sensible way to cover the expense of Obama’s new jobs bill, which we desperately need if the economy is going to be able to dodge the double dip.
And if you’re making a million dollars or more, this surtax is not going to cause you great suffering. It just isn’t.
Back in 1933, Louisiana governor Huey Long asked some questions: “Isn’t $10 million to $100 million enough for any one man? What’s he going to do with any more? Isn’t $5 million enough for one child to inherit, who never did a lick of work for it?”
Huey Long proposed out-and-out expropriation of any income over $1 million. All Harry Reid is proposing is a measly 5% surtax.
And let’s remember that millionaires used to have to pay an income tax of 70 percent in the 1970s, and today it’s half of that. It’s time we got back to progressive taxation. And it’s time we got back to the old idea of redistributing wealth and income so there is some semblance of fairness in this country, and something more than rhetoric to the claim of equal opportunity.
If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story "Wall St. Protesters Show the Way"
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