1) How Our Deficit Grew So Big

Taxes cuts for the rich, two wars (paid for by selling U.S. debt to China and others), and a drug-company boondoggle for a bloated Medicare prescription drug plan—all voted for by a Republican Congress and signed into law by a Republican president, W.—are one big reason for our current federal fiscal mess.

The lack of universal health care and any control over runaway health-care costs is another.  Most current opponents of health-care reform propose no solutions to runaway healthcare costs except cutting benefits for the middle class, the working class, and the poor.  The hidden agenda?  Reduce pressure on the rich to help fund healthcare for all Americans.

2) The Social Contract and Why The Rich Owe Taxes, Too

Warren’s point is excellent. No one gets rich all on her own in any society.

All of us pay for the roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railroads, ports and canals, and publicly-subsidized monopoly utilities (such as gas, water, the Internet, telephone system, and electricity) and the postal service that enable a business woman to transport goods to market and receive raw materials.

An enterpreneur depends upon the skills and education of workers whom we all pay to educate. We all pay for the military, police, and fire services and legal system (judges, prosecuters, etc.) that protect a business woman’s physical and intellectual property.

So-called “burdensome regulations”—that we all pay to devise, administer, and enforce—ensure (sort of) that we have clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, clean soil to till and safe food to eat.

When you understand these facts, it’s much clearer that the rich—disproportionate beneficiaries of our collective wealth—have a moral duty to pay at least as much as the rest of us in taxes.

I’d argue, they owe more than the rest of us.   Plain and simple Yankee fairness demands progressive taxation.  If you get more, you should give more back.

All this is part of any just and reasonable social contract.

The red “class warfare” flag—the one that opponents of restoring a fair share of taxes on the wealthy wave about like a matador at a corrida—is a trick, designed to take your eyes off the truth.

Don’t run after it like an enraged bull.  Stop, think, and investigate the facts and query the morality of these highly self-interested (and selfish) claims.