Did you hear the story about the group of millionaires who called a press conference Monday and called on Congress to levy higher taxes on them?
I didn\’t think so. On a day in which we were treated with TMI about a New York congressman\’s errant self portraits, the public was deprived of an important side to the controversy over raising taxes on people making more than $1 million. It turns out that middle-class people aren\’t alone in their support on raising taxes on this group.
A group that calls itself \”Patriotic Millionaires\” held a press conference to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Bush tax cuts and encourage Congress to put millionaire tax rates on the table in the budget debates. The group released a video featuring millionaire beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts who say that the cuts should be rescinded for the good of the country.
\”Patriotic Millionaires\” explain why they want their taxes increased.
TAKE ACTION
Ten years ago, the first of the \”Bush tax cuts\” was enacted into law, which made our tax brackets more regressive and helped set the stage for record deficits. Rep. Jan Schakowsky\’s Fairness in Taxation Act makes them more progressive. Tell your representative to support the Fairness In Taxation Act.
This should have been a slam-dunk for an assignment editor, especially for a cable news channel with hours upon hours to fill. The story almost writes itself: Wealthy people who have benefited handsomely from conservative economic policies bite the hands that fed them, on the 10th anniversary of a landmark event in Republican economic policy.
Yet aside from a few paragraphs on the Wall Street Journal\’s website, there was no major media coverage of this press conference. Nothing on the cable news sites, the major newspaper sites, or on CNBC or Bloomberg.
In fact, this group has had a hard time getting heard for months. I was able to find an ABC News segment on the group in April. But while there is no shortage of news clips of Wall Street types who are calling on Congress to lower our already historically low tax rates on millionaires and billionaires, you have to dig deep to find the voices of millionaires who hold a contrarian view—even though that view is not contrarian at all among the majorities of people who have told pollsters that raising taxes on the wealthy is a solution we should be considering for our deficit problem.
I wonder why.
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