From NYT:
...the bill would pay for itself with a 0.7 percent surtax on people making more than $1 million. That would affect about 345,000 taxpayers, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, adding an average of $13,457 to their annual tax bills. Protecting that elite group — and hewing to their rigid antitax vows — was more important to Senate Republicans than the thousands of construction jobs the bill would have helped create, or the millions of people who would have used the rebuilt roads, bridges and airports.
I make a decent living (not as decent as it used to be thanks to the economy).
As someone who makes a portion of my income in capital gains, $13,000 and change is slightly less than the fluxuation I'll see in those gains yearly. As an American, if I were making the kind of money where my extra burden would be a mere $13,000 I would happily contribute my share to help others get their lives and livelihoods back.
And I am FAR from someone making a million dollar salary. But that's me (and us here). We actually give a shit about our fellow man and not just our wallets.
As we all know, a $13,000 increase in taxes for millionaires will not even appear on their radar. It is .7%. Nothing. And I think a large portion of people in that range would be fine about paying it if it meant more of the economy would be working (and, therefore, spending).
But it is the smaller, stingiest, most callous group in that category that push back against it, and the majority of their republican elected officials.
What makes me seeth is not just the selfishness and self-centeredness of those who would let others die rather than contributing more to their country, but the way in which the republicans insult our intelligence by trying to characterize this modest increase. Listen, guys. If you really, truly despise the middle class, the working class, the elderly and the disabled just FUCKING SAY IT. We know it's how you think.
If you are so above the rest of us who do most of the working and dying in this country - and keep you and your colleagues in luxury and with the best health plan in the nation - than why be so cryptic about it.
Here's the truth of the matter. You - and the wealthy who are actually working against these modest plans for fixing the economy - are gutter trash. You are the ugly Americans. You are not the best people you know and are possibly among the worst. If you are happy living with that fact, good for you.
But there's a storm brewing outside and you better be prepared for it, because your self-serving ways are under attack, and rightfully so.
A friend of mine many years ago told me he tempted a homeless man with a hundred dollar bill and asked him if he thought God existed. The man said yes. My friend said, "Wrong answer" and pulled the bill away. His little incident was later used by a writer friend for some movie.
The rest of our discussion after that revolved around whether we thought it was our duty to give a damn about other people and whether God would punish us for not being decent human beings. His theory was that God had no part in those act in his life and, in the end, he would receive no retribution for treating anyone poorly.
My response was that it didn't matter what God thought or whether God even exists. The important issue was how you intend to go through your life - as a decent, caring person or a piece of meat. God or not, the decisions we make as to how we conduct our lives and how we treat others reside completely with us alone.
If you republicans feel it is fine to treat others as meat, that's fine. But don't ever try to fool us or yourselves into believing you really give a shit. Your actions over the last 10 years have spoken so much louder than your words.
And the majority is no longer fooled by it.