Saturday, January 28, 2012

TAX THE RICH?

There has been a lot of talk lately by politicians about "taxing the rich" and making them "pay their fare share."  While I suspect this is only a ploy to tax increase taxes on investment income from the majority of average hard working Americans, if congress and the Obama administration truly believe the rich don't pay their fare share, I have an idea for them.  

It would save the country millions of dollars and have zero impact on the poor if all the political leaders in Washington from the President, down through all the members of Congress would simply take a pay cut.  Since the majority of them are very wealthy if not obscenely rich, it would have little or no effect on their personal net worth, while saving the country millions of dollars.  I think a token salary of $20,000 would not be out of line.  Poor working American citizens, people on disability and Social Security and the unemployed often receive far less. 

If our leaders expect everyone else to bite the bullet during the financial crisis, then they should set the example.  I don't mean they should donate this money to some pet charity, worthy or noble as that may sound, it would not save the taxpayers any money.   I mean they should give it up entirely and their total compensation should be $20,000 or less per year.  If they show a willingness to give up something for the good of the country then perhaps it wouldn't be such a task to get others to do the same.  

Any of the truly wealthy who are behind the whole "tax the rich" movement and think that it's unfair for them to pay less in taxes, as a percentage of their income, than some of the people who work for them can easily relieve their guilty consciences by donating money towards reducing the national debt.  Or perhaps they could set up trusts to help fund some of the social programs now paid by taxpayers.  If they are donating billions to charities around the world, why not donate to the country that made them wealthy to begin with???

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