Taxing the rich is hardly ‘class warfare’

Here we go again. The Republicans are calling President Obama’s deficit reduction plan “class warfare.” Once again, they’re playing the fear card to distract us from the facts.

Currently, the richest 5 percent of people in the United States possess more wealth than the other 95 percent of the population combined, a shocking degree of wealth disparity that threatens the economic health of the entire country. And the Republicans are trying to perform linguistic gymnastics to suggest that tax increases on the wealthy are really a threat to “job creators.”

This is a terrible ruse. With an economy driven by consumption, it’s the middle class that drives job creation in the United States through their economic activity.

To resurrect our economy, we need to promote the health of the middle class, and a good place to start would be to more equitably distribute the tax burden such that the most wealthy among us will pay their fair share to assist in our economic recovery.

Taxing those who make over $1 million per year is not class warfare; it’s sound fiscal policy.

Robert M. Sargis

Naperville