[Today’s run: Watson Road 3.5 miles]
Eric Cantor is one of the higher-ups on the Republican side in the US House. I saw this little news blurb about him:
[In response to the President’s] remarks that he would not accept a deal “in which I am allowed to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need,” the majority leader joked that Obama “can write a check anytime he wants.”
That got me wondering if there is a website where a person, burdened with too much money, can contribute to lowering the debt. Sure enough there is. They take payments on the internet at http://pay.gov (search for “Gift to reduce the Public Debt”) And such payments are tax deductible (!) if you itemize… which seems to somewhat defeat the purpose.. but I digress.
In looking up that website information via Google, I found the text of a letter sent to Patriotic Millionaires (http://patrioticmillionaires.org/) by Senator Orin Hatch letting the millionaires know that this service is available.
You see, the people at patrioticmillionaires.org would like the tax rate increased so that millionaires like themselves have to pay higher taxes.
So far so good. The really fun part comes when the PMs responded to hatch. They say, “No Thanks.” in so many words. Their complaint is that if they just make contributions it is not big enough to make a dent. They want the rate on ALL millionaires to be increased.
Frankly, I find their argument to be completely without merit, baseless, void, vain and empty.
Imagine this: You and I see a car crash. The cars start to burn and we can both see that the people inside need to be removed. But the job is bigger than one person can accomplish. So we both stand there until someone tells us we must help. Of course! otherwise our efforts would be in vain and we will be injured for no reason. We need someone to force us to do this good thing or we stand by and do nothing. (I’m hoping you catch the sarcasm in there.)
That is the position of the patrioticmillionaires.org operation, so far as I can tell.
And here’s the kicker: patrioticmillionaires.org website has a button for people to make contributions. So!, they don’t want their adherents to make a contribution to offset the debt. No. They want that contribution to come to them so they can work to pass a law so that all people will join together to fight for the common good. Otherwise they will stand by and do nothing.
Who wouldn’t?
Ok, no I’m not completely mystified. What patrioticmillionaires.org wants is not to pay down the debt. What they want is for the debt to be paid down. That is a different thing. Their understanding is not of the car wreck analogy, it is more like excess-litter analogy. “Won’t someone pick up all of this trash? It is making our city look messy.” But again, they aren’t willing to actually bend over and pick up anything unless the policeman tells them to.
These folks are in positions of leadership?
I’ve changed my mind. Can we take 100% of the millions from the patrioticmillionaires and give them to someone who has a bit of moral rectitude or civic leadership? Please?