Stand with Warren Buffett

It's nice to see there's a wealthy American who actually has some common sense.

As most of you know, Warren Buffett recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times, titled, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich":
"Stop Coddling the Super-Rich" by Warren Buffett

While most of America is smart enough to know what our politicians are too stupid to figure out, while there are too many wealthy people bankrolling said politicians, there are millionaires who do care, who do understand that raising taxes on people who are struggling and giving tax breaks to those who can afford it the most is economic suicide for America.

The fact is, like it or not (and for most of the wealthy, that's "not"), the government still runs on revenue.  You can cut all you want, but eventually, it's like your car...you can refuse to change the oil, the tires, leave all of the problems unfixed because you're "cutting spending," but eventually, even if it becomes a total clunker, you've got to at least put in some gas, or that thing isn't going anywhere.

Our economy is going nowhere, because the wealthiest insist they should be completely subsidized by those who have the least.  Those who have the least end up with higher taxes, which they can ill afford to pay.  It means these are people who can't afford food, rent, mortgages, utilities, transportation and anything else one needs to survive.  That meager income, subsidized by their higher taxes, has to cover the entire country's needs, including things wealthy people also use, such as highways, fire departments, police departments, etc.

Do you think the money to even keep up your state's legislature comes from the sky or is growing on a tree?  Nope.  It comes from tax revenue.  Do you think your state legislators would want to work in a building with crumbling floors and ceilings?  Of course not.  Do you think that's on the table for "cutting spending"?  No way.

Someone has to subsidize every last thing the government pays out.  Who do you think pays the salaries of those such as Speaker Boehner, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Eric Cantor and any of the GOPers who are quick to say tax increases or even closing of loopholes for the wealthy must be off the table...but do you think they've decided they're making too much money and should sacrifice good portions of their hefty salaries?  Do you think they might give up their expense accounts in the name of belt tightening?  Of course not.

These are things they can personally afford to do...but they won't do it in the name of "cutting spending," when they can afford it more than someone who was laid off of their now-outsourced job and can't find another that pays even half as well as their previous job.  Needless to say, even raising taxes on the person now making $15,000/year (as opposed to that same person previously supporting his family of four on $80,000/year) not only hurts that person, but even as the percentage of that fairly minuscule amount of money taken by the government increases, it definitely doesn't give the government the healthy revenue that person once paid into the system.

Our government is corrupt and broken, backed by the interests of the wealthy 1% at the top, the Koch brothers and those of their ilk, who would prefer to see Americans starve than to themselves pay the tiniest bit, the least painful extra tiny percentage of taxes, not because they don't have it to spare, not because they really need it, but because holding onto it gives them power and prestige.  It's not burning a hole in their pockets, they're certainly not spending everything they've got...instead, they're sitting onto it, like the goose that laid the golden egg.  That golden egg sits in the nest, they keep it warm, but it remains there, doing nothing, not hatching, not contributing to anyone in any purposeful, meaningful way.

As citizens, we need to let our government know this is unacceptable.  We need them to know we understand basic economical principles: without income, without revenue, the government can't be solvent, no matter how much spending is cut.  Just like you can't get blood from a stone, without income, the government won't be able to pay the equivalent of its rent, mortgage, utilities, food, etc.  A tiny income from the few who are underpaid isn't enough to pull us out of this: it will take true dedication and patriotism, not bogus flag-waving, from the wealthiest in this country to share the sacrifice, to contribute that income to the government in a way that is painless to them and mighty painful for everyone else, not to mention dangerous to the very survival of those who are currently expected to sacrifice, in order to save the wealthy the trouble.

As part of the Rebuild the Dream movement mentioned in an earlier post, we need to stand with Warren Buffett and demand the wealthiest, who are doing better than ever, despite an economy that's hurting everyone else, give their fair share to a system that has been very, very good to them.
I stand with Warren Buffett

This is what America needs, not a crazy economy based on a few dollars from the poorest and a fictionally-based economy.  America needs real numbers, not fictional math as imagined by an author (rather than a mathematician) with no expertise whatsoever in economics.