Obama: Be a Patriot. Pay More Taxes.

President Obama today said it was “patriotic” of “well-to-do Americans” to pay higher taxes.

Obama, who spoke at the White House, indicated the money would be used not just for paying down the deficit, but for broad new spending plans, which he termed “investments” in “things like” education:

Instead of the middle class paying more, we should ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more, a modest amount, so that we can reduce our deficit and still make investments in things like education that help our economy grow . . . And here’s the thing — there are a lot of well-to-do Americans, patriotic Americans, who understand this and are willing to do the right thing, willing to do their part to make this country strong.

Obama made the remarks during a short speech in which he called on Congress not to extend the Bush tax cuts for higher earners. A video of the appearance is below.

Paying more income taxes and having your money spent by the government is not normally associated with patriotism. Actually, Americans managed to show their patriotism without hardly paying income taxes at all until 1894, when the first permanent income tax was enacted.

Some people have another term for individuals who want to pay more taxes to a government that currently is spending at the highest share of GDP since World War II: Suckers.

 

Award winning journalist Keith Koffler has 16 years of experience covering Washington. As a reporter for CongressDaily, National Journal magazine, and Roll Call, Keith wrote primarily from the White House, covering three presidents and learning as few have the intricacies of the West Wing and the behavior and motivations of its occupants. While mainly stationed at the White House, he also extensively covered Congress and Washington’s lobbyists.

Keith has also written for a variety of other publications, including Politico, The Daily Caller, and The London Observer. He currently writes regular opinion columns for Politico. He blogs at whitehousedossier.com.