Patriotic Millionaire
The group Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength began in November 2010 to lobby for the expiration of tax cuts for the wealthy. The group believed that the United States was in financial trouble and that “patriotic” people earning over one million dollars a year should chip in to help the country through the crisis.
The term “patriotic millionaire” has been used beyond the named group to indicate any wealthy person (including one not necessarily earning over a million dollars a year or one not necessarily with one million dollars of net worth) who is willing to pay increased taxes.
Patriotic Millionaires
History of the Patriotic Millionaires
In November, 2010 more than 100 of the country’s most financially successful citizens came together to urge the President to let the Bush era tax cuts expire for people making more than $1 million a year. An outpouring of public support encouraged them to continue their fight.
ABC News
Raise My Taxes, Please, Say Rich People Upset Over Breaks for Millionaires
By SUSANNA KIM
Dec. 11, 2010
While the wealthiest taxpayers will gain financially if Republicans and the president successfully extend the Bush-era tax cuts in Congress, a group of millionaires and business owners said they will be disheartened if they pay less taxes next year.
Members of the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, a group of 89 millionaires, petitioned President Obama to allow tax cuts on incomes greater than $1 million to expire at the end of the year, as scheduled.
Hot Ait
“Patriotic Millionaires”: Darn it, why won’t anyone raise our taxes?
posted at 9:41 pm on April 13, 2011 by Allahpundit
Like Ace, I’m increasingly open to this idea. Not because I think it’s sound economics to drop a tax bomb on part of the population during a moment of sluggish economic growth, but because I think nothing will convince Americans that there’s no magic-bullet “kill the rich” solution to the country’s debt catastrophe unless we prove it by letting it happen. So let’s get on with it: Hike those top brackets up to 100 percent — not 39.6 or even 50 — and let’s watch those tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities disappear. Start seizing yachts if you have to. Let the left, the “ideas” movement, have its moment of unbridled resentment-driven class-warfare joy, and then they can explain to the rest of the public why the books still aren’t balanced. Good news, millionaires (and non-millionaires making $250,000 a year or more): You now qualify as super patriots.
Huffington Post
‘Patriotic Millionaires’ Describe What They’ve Done With Their Bush Tax Cuts: ‘I Built A Dance Floor In My House’
By Arthur Delaney
First Posted: 06/ 6/11 02:29 PM ET
WASHINGTON—Paul Egerman isn’t certain how many millions he’s saved from the tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration in the early 2000s and extended by President Barack Obama in December of last year.
(...)
Egerman is part of a gang of self-described Patriotic Millionaires who wish the federal government would help itself to more of their money to address its big budget deficits. Nearly 200 millionaires have signed a letter asking congressional Republicans to consider healing budget gaps with increased revenue—in particular, higher taxes on millionaires—instead of just reduced spending.
The group is coordinated by the Agenda Project, a New York think tank, and Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders and wealthy people that promotes “fair and adequate taxation” to support the economy.