Millionaires from Mass. join call to raise their tax rates

Boston Globe ^ | April 16, 2012 | Callum Borchers

[GQuagmire]

Philippe Villers was a little boy in 1940, when his family escaped from Paris only hours before the Nazi invasion and immigrated to the United States. From the harrowing flight of a wartime refugee, Villers went on to earn degrees from Harvard and MIT and to cofound Computervision, a former Fortune 500 company that made him rich.

“This country has been good to me,’’ Villers, 76, said. “I’d like to do my part to give back.’’

As part of his effort to give back, Villers has made an unusual request to the federal government: Raise my taxes, please.

Villers is one of a handful of Massachusetts members of a national organization called Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, which supports a 30 percent effective tax rate on million-dollar annual earners under the “Buffett Rule.’’ The Senate will hold a procedural vote on the proposal Monday.

The US tax code’s top income tax rate is 35 percent but imposes only a 15 percent levy on capital gains on investments, where many affluent Americans earn much of their money. Billionaire Warren Buffett, for whom the rule is named, has complained publicly that he pays an effective tax rate of just 17.4 percent, while his secretary pays 35.8 percent.

[GQuagmire]

What is wrong with these people?

[freeangel]

Nothing is stopping these twits from making large donations to the federal government where they will be used to fund corrupt crap like “seminars” in Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

[Venturer]

All they have to do is write a check.They do not have to wait for a bill to be passed.

If I were in the Mass. Legislature I would write a bill thanking these Millionaires who belong to this organisation and raising their taxes till they squealed like pigs.

[VanDeKoik]

“Philippe Villers was a little boy in 1940, when his family escaped from Paris only hours before the Nazi invasion and immigrated to the United States. From the harrowing flight of a wartime refugee, Villers went on to earn degrees from Harvard and MIT and to cofound Computervision, a former Fortune 500 company that made him rich.

“This country has been good to me,’’ Villers, 76, said. “I’d like to do my part to give back.’’”

So your parents fled the Nazis just so you can adopt National Socialist philosophy 70 years later?

What a waste of space.

[RightOnline]

Hey, Massholes.....you wanna pay more, then pay more and quit mewling about it. Sheesh.

[SECURE AMERICA]

“This country has been good to me,’’ Villers, 76, said. “I’d like to do my part to give back.’’

So write a check and STFU..
These people are just publicity whores.
If they truly that THEY should pay more to the Government they would just do so and move on.

[LibLieSlayer]

Audit them IRS... they are dims... and it is 100% assured that they are cheating on their taxes... exactly as the man does that this legislation was named after has been doing.

LLS

[AU72]

There is a box in the Mass. State Tax return that you can check if you want to pay a higher rate. Almost nobody does.

[sickoflibs]

RE “This country has been good to me,’’ Villers, 76, said. “I’d like to do my part to give back.’’
As part of his effort to give back, Villers has made an unusual request to the federal government: Raise my taxes, please.
Villers is one of a handful of Massachusetts members of a national organization called Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, which supports a 30 percent effective tax rate on million-dollar annual earners under the “Buffett Rule.’’ The Senate will hold a procedural vote on the proposal Monday. “

Boehner and Co in congress sit and say nothing while they are humiliated daily by these Buffetts. Don't they even believe in their own positions? How can they not respond to these? Their silence makes it look like they are protecting these rich libs who are making fun of them.

[the invisib1e hand]

What is wrong with these people?

the question is, what's wrong with you? And the answer is, you presume good faith.

these people are shrewdly stepping into the front of the debate with a big flourish of fanfare. Undoubtedly they will have a seat at the table where the laws are written that people who presume good faith will never have.

in other words, you'll pay their fair share.

[NHResident]

You are absolutely correct - Howie Carr has mentioned it many times - the actual per cent of Bay State mASSholes that check off the box and pay more state taxes is something on the order of .005% of taxpayers! All mouth!

[Gay State Conservative]

There is a box in the Mass. State Tax return that you can check if you want to pay a higher rate. Almost nobody does.

EXACTLY! Folks outside the Gay State wouldn't know it but it's true.I once heard from a local Boston talk host that something like 800 people checked that box in some recent year....600 in a state,a very *wealthy* state,of 6 million people.

[Gay State Conservative]

Ooops...I meant 800 both times.

[libertarian27]

http://www.fms.treas.gov/faq/moretopics_gifts.html

Gifts to the United States Government

How do I make a contribution to the U.S. government?

Citizens who wish to make a general donation to the U.S. government may send contributions to a specific account called “Gifts to the United States.” This account was established in 1843 to accept gifts, such as bequests, from individuals wishing to express their patriotism to the United States. Money deposited into this account is for general use by the federal government and can be available for budget needs. These contributions are considered an unconditional gift to the government. Financial gifts can be made by check or money order payable to the United States Treasury and mailed to the address below.

Gifts to the United States
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Room 622D
Hyattsville, MD 20782

(Put this info on a card - keep them on you - when you bump into someone with the same mindset as the article Millionaires - Hand them a card)

MA also has a state tax return box to pay a higher rate - bet more of them didn’t check it off.

[ScottinVA]

They`re trying to buy some media love in a socialist America. If, as a part of the hated “1%,” you publicly call for the government to confiscate more of your wealth, suddenly you`re “one of the good ones.”

Yet, we won`t see them stroke a big check to the Dept. of the Treasury.. no, that`d be too low key.

[Let_It_Be_So]

From the summary: “Billionaire Warren Buffett, for whom the rule is named, has complained publicly that he pays an effective tax rate of just 17.4 percent, while his secretary pays 35.8 percent.”

Buffett may have “complained” publicly that he doesn’t pay enough taxes, but has privately resisted paying his tax burden to the IRS and I suppose we could safely assume he has paid more to his accountants and lawyers in fighting the IRS than his secretary makes in salary.

What a perfect poster child for the consummate hypocrite!

[maggief]

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=7559

Founded in 1981, Families USA (FUSA), originally known as the Villers Foundation, is an influential Washington-based health-care advocacy group “dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.”

One of FUSA’s co-founders is Ron Pollack, who currently serves as the group’s Executive Director and Vice President. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Pollack as the sole consumer representative on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, where he worked on the Patients’ Bill of Rights. The Hill and National Journal cited Pollack as one of the top nonprofit lobbyists in Washington.

FUSA’s other co-founder, Philippe Villers, is currently the organization’s President. He also serves on the ACLU’s President’s Committee and Amnesty International USA’s Executive Directors Council.

FUSA’s board of directors is composed of numerous leaders from prominent progressive organizations, including:

Mary Kay Henry, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and Chair of Reform Immigration for America
Jarrett Barrios, President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
Kathy Bonk, Executive Director of the Communications Consortium Media Center, which is funded by Public Interest Projects
Gordon Bonnyman, Executive Director of the Tennessee Justice Center
James M. Christian, Sr. of PSI Family Services
Robert Edgar, Co-Chair of Win Without War, former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, and President and CEO of the George Soros-funded Common Cause
Jeff Kirsch, Vice President of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

FUSA has spent tens of millions of dollars, organizing and lobbying for health-care coverage for children and the uninsured. Until 2009, the organization was a prominent supporter of universal government-run health care. When the Democrats abandoned their pursuit of that goal — due in part to the public opposition during the summer of 2009 — FUSA followed suit, receiving harsh criticism from the left for ostensibly abandoning its values.

One of FUSA’s principal projects is the Stand Up For Health Care website, which is aimed to “empower ordinary Americans with the knowledge and opportunity to become leaders in the movement for health care reform.” Besides hosting a blog, the project organizes petitions and letter-writing campaigns to Congress for health-care advocacy.

Each year, FUSA runs a Health Care Action (HCA) conference to promote increased levels of government control over the American health-care system. At the 15th HCA conference in January 2010, guest speaker (and White House Senior Advisor) Valerie Jarrett told the crowd that the fight for new legislation was “not over.” “You have been out there in the trenches working with us every single day,” she said. “On behalf of President Obama, I want to have the pleasure of thanking you. […] I want to reassure you he has not given up on this.”

With the passage of the Democratic health-care reform bill in March 2010, FUSA Executive Director Ron Pollack told the Washington Post: “I’m not worried about the bill. It has its imperfections and there are things we can build on in the future. The immediate concern is implementation. […] It’s implementation that will translate this bill into real health-care reform.”

Pollack also indicated that, if his group were successful, the eventual price tag for the health-care bill would be substantially greater than the Congressional Budget Office had originally predicted:

“[T]here is a large number of people who will be eligible” for funding that the CBO “presume[d] won’t enroll. We’re actually helping to found a new organization to work on this. Its placeholder name is Enroll America, and it will involve all the different interest groups, from supporters of reform like consumers groups to community health centers and doctors and insurers. And what we’ll do is raise tens of millions of dollars for state groups to work with the state to try to create the most effective systems to apply and enroll.”

In 2010, FUSA again partnered with the Obama administration to rehabilitate the image of the unpopular health-care bill with a nationwide PR campaign. Anita Dunn, Obama’s former communications director, and Andrew Grossman, a top Democratic strategist who coordinated grassroots efforts on behalf of health-care reform in 2009, collaborated to build a campaign that would last until 2014; it would consist of “road shows” all across the nation in order to provide federal officials with an advocacy platform to promote the bill. Pollack described this initiative as an effort to shape the media’s perception of health-care legislation. “Those events are intended to be media-centric,” he stated. “We devote a lot of time before and after to meet with editorial boards, to do radio and TV interviews and sit down with local reporters.”

[GQuagmire]

Nice find.

[DAC21]

I know back in 2004, MA had a voluntary higher State tax rate. Of course Lurch whom was running for President and calling for higher taxes wasn’t paying the higher rate.