Former U.S. Sen. Willard Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is neither the first nor the last billionaire to say that he wants to pay higher taxes, ergo, other Americans should suffer tax hikes, too.
Romney recently wrote, “It’s time for rich people like me to pay more.” He advocated higher taxes on—among other things—payrolls, real estate, carried interest, and death.
It’s as if 2012’s GOP presidential nominee walked into a restaurant, ordered a steak, and then instructed waiters to deliver a filet mignon to every table, rather than pick up those steeper tabs, Romney would expect patrons to pay those bigger bills.
Legendary investor Warren Buffett, 95, also practices this moral exhibitionism. The Oracle of Omaha famously whines that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. So, rather than fight to cut her taxes to his level, Buffett has spent decades clamoring to boost taxes on other Americans.
Buffett also holds the title of America’s No. 1 Hypocrite—a distinction for which competition is ferocious.
Even as he has screamed for higher taxes, Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, sued the IRS in 2002 to keep $16.3 million in deductions. In 2005, a federal court ordered the IRS to pay Buffett a $23 million judgment.
Since 2006, Buffett shielded $43 billion from federal levies by donating that treasure chest to a destitute vagrant named Bill Gates. Let’s hope Buffett’s tax-free bounty keeps Gates (and his foundation) off the mean streets of Seattle.
This “tax me more” phenomenon is fueled by the same ignorance that energizes Mayor Zohran Mamdani democrat-socialist, New York City; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, socialist-Vt.; and other neo-Marxists. They insist that “the rich” do not pay their “fair share” of taxes.
Of course, they never say what that “fair share” is—other than “more!”
The Tax Foundation’s research on who actually pays taxes debunks the entire narrative that drives the Left’s warmly collectivist agenda.
Per the latest IRS data, the top 1% (by income) of federal tax filers earned 22.4% of all Adjusted Gross Income in 2022. They paid an average income tax rate of 26.1%, and a whopping 40.4% of all federal income taxes.
The top 10% of filers, scored 49.4% of AGI, faced an average 21.1% income tax rate, and surrendered 72% of all income taxes.
And what of the broad cohort of the American people—the regular Joes and Janes from coast to coast?
The bottom 50% of tax filers secured 11.5% of AGI, confronted a 3.74% average rate, and handed over a mere 3% of all income taxes paid in 2022.
So, the top 1% financed 40.4% of that year’s income taxes collected, while the top 10% underwrote 72% of that sum, and the lower half of filers coughed up a puny 3%.
If “the rich” do not already pay their “fair share,” what percentage would the Left call “fair?” Eighty percent? Ninety percent? Anything less than 100%?
Absolutely nothing stops Romney, Buffett, or other bleeding-heart billionaires from sending even more (or all) of their income to the U.S. Treasury.
Let’s make it really easy for “the rich”—or anyone else—to fork over even more of their money.
The Republican Congress and President Donald Trump should enact the Higher-rate Optional Tax.
The HOT Tax would add Line 39 to IRS Form 1040. It would read: “If you are being taxed at a rate lower than what you wish to pay, please enter your desired higher rate, multiply your AGI by that number, and enter the relevant total. Wire that to Washington, pronto.”
The HOT Tax would give guilty rich people a surefire way to pay more taxes without imposing steeper levies on millions who prefer to keep more of their money. The HOT Tax also would make it harder for Democrats to use class-warfare to slip Americans the Left’s go-to aphrodisiac: widespread tax increases.
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