"Patriotic Millionaires:" A Buffett Line of Wealthy Tax-Raisers

Patriotic Millionaires Web site

A group called the Patriotic Millionaires visited Washington recently to lobby for an increase in the tax rates for high-income Americans. The group announced opposition to Senator Pat Toomey's (R-PA) proposal to reduce the maximum tax rate from 35 to 28 in exchange for limiting or eliminating many present tax deductions.
The group consists of about 100 people or couples, few if any famous and mostly from California or the New York City metro area (though a surprising number come from Utah). They claim either to be making or have made $1 million or more per year.

That Warren Buffett, Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance or the Patriotic Millionaires could be lobbying for higher tax rates should not surprise; Karl Marx's benefactor and co-author, Josef Engels, was very wealthy. Power comes in many forms: monetary wealth and political influence being two examples and some may be willing to give up wealth for political influence. I will leave the debate as to whether tax rates on the wealthy are too high, too low or just right to others, at least for now; what clearly (at least to me) is the case is that the federal government is too big to succeed and the tax code is too complex to collect taxes as efficiently as possible.