Pandering to the ultra-rich must end

Nearly two-thirds of Americans agree that the ultra-rich should pay their fair share of taxes for the benefit of all. The Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act (UMTA) recently introduced in the US Senate can make it happen. Here are the three points most important to me about the UTMA.

1. Billionaires whose wealth increased by 40% during the pandemic built their wealth by using our country's infrastructure, which is paid for by taxing the rest of Americans disproportionately.

It is now common knowledge that the richest 0.1% of Americans pay a lower effective tax rate than the bottom 99%.

2. The UTMA takes into consideration the complex loopholes that allow the ultra-rich to avoid taxes.

Tackling all of those loopholes built up over decades has proved to be too daunting, so the UTMA creates a new tax that is enforceable by being completely separate from existing taxes.

The bill provides $100 billion for IRS modernization and Treasury resources, to create ironclad rules and enforcement of this new tax on just 100,000 households with net worth of $50 million and up.

3. The resulting $3 trillion revenue over 10 years is more important than ever, because providing desperately needed COVID relief brought our national debt dangerously close to outweighing our GDP.

Even as our GDP recovers, our government will need to provide even more assistance to address the economic inequities created by pandering to the ultra-rich for so long.

Amy Hartsough

Hoffman Estates