On "Your Money" on CNN today, there was a debate about the surcharge on those with high incomes to pay for health care reform. Of course there was a wealthy person against it, and we have heard a lot of that, while usually the ones for it are those who do not make enough for the tax to hit them. I fall into that category.
The interesting part included a descendent of Oscar Meyer who is wealthy and is volunteering to pay it and is advocating that it is fair for the rich to pay 1% on income above $350,000 and capping out at 5.4% on incomes of $1 million or more. He said that these same people have been benefitting from the Bush tax cuts for the rich and that it is fair to help with the health insurance crisis and talked about a petition that wealthy people are signing in support of it. If I were fortunate enough to make that much, I would gladly pay more taxes so that evenyone could be insured at an affordable rate. Here is the website: http://wealthforcommongood.org/
I also find it interesting and fair since our country has had much higher tax rates for the rich in previous years-- http://www.taxfoundation.org/...
The 70s and 80s--up to 70%! In the 50s and early 60s--as high as 91% and 92%. I think adding 5.4% to an existing rate of 35% is not the end of the world, especially since people at that level of income have accountants who help bring down the taxable income to much lower amounts. The opponent said that doing so would make us like France, and we are much richer than they are. This same person would likely rant about our deficit and talk about how poor we are. He wants some PEOPLE to be rich, himself included, even to the detriment of the country and its other citizens.
Heck, even on my $50,000 income, I would willingly pay another 1% if everyone could be covered. How do I know that I or someone I love won't be the next to suffer from a pre-existing condition and become uninsurable?
As a teacher (and every teacher I know does this), I willingly spend my own money for things that benefit my class and "loan" money to kids who have no lunch money. There are programs for free lunches, but some families do not qualify and yet don't always send money with the students for lunch every day. I know the scammers who just want money for candy in the machines, but there are also kids who have parents in the hospital, etc. who just don't have it sometimes. We buy items we don't really want or need for school fund raisers and/or donate to school activities.
We do this because it is the right thing to do. I know many on this site who make much less than $350,000 also contribute much to endeavors that are good for the people of the country and do it with a smile. It is nice to see some wealthy people wanting to do the right thing also. It would be nice to have some of them appear at President Obama's press conference and stand up for the good of the country.