Every time one of the Great Unwashed starts talking about the inequality of Mitt Romney paying half the tax rate of the average working stiff, you’ll hear some Republican bonehead dismiss it as ‘the politics of envy.’ (No doubt Frank Luntz sat up all night to nail down that catch phrase.) Well, here’s Bill Gates, the richest man in America, and the second richest, Warren Buffett, both saying the wealthy should pay more in taxes. What’s the canned GOP Talking Point for that one, Frank, envy of the wealthy by the wealthier? As President Obama recently said, “I promise you, Bill Gates does not envy the rich.”
Excerpt from Think Progress:
GATES: Well the United States has a huge budget deficit, so taxes are going to have to go up. And I certainly agree that they should go up more on the rich than everyone else. That’s just justice.
BBC HOST: Is that a message you think that works with other people as wealthy as yourself, or is it just a small circle of friends — yourself, Warren Buffet, a few others.
GATES: Well, I hope we can solve that deficit problem with a sense of shared sacrifice — where everybody would feel like they’re doing their part. And right now, I don’t feel like people like myself are paying as much as we should.
H/T to Think Progress for the excerpt and Gates video.