It’s the 10th anniversary of the Bush tax cut for millionaires, and some millionaires say enough is enough. They’ve bought enough boats, added enough wings to their mansions and put enough of their extra millions in the bank. It’s time to “Tax me” they say.

A new video from the Patriotic Millionaires, the group of software designers, movie makers, financial gurus and entrepreneurs, urges Republican House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other lawmakers to end the Bush tax cuts and raise their taxes.

Ten years ago you made a mistake. You decided our country needed less money, and millionaires like me needed more…Less money for roads to transport our products, for high speed Internet to build our technology companies, or science research, education, for universities, and research to spark our innovation… Rich people are not the cause of a robust economy they’re the result of a robust economy…Fix the mistake you made. Tax me, because my country, our country, means more than my money.

On a conference call with reporters yesterday, several of the millionaires featured in the video told reporters what they did with those extra millions. Dennis Mehiel, CEO of U.S. Corrugated, Inc. said his extras didn’t create any jobs–in the United States.

I got a bigger boat than I used to have. The problem is it was built in Italy.

Paul Egerman said the Bush tax cuts put a more than $10 million in his big piggy bank and he kept most of it and it’s more than likely the rest of the nation’s nearly 400,000 millionaires did the same with their personal windfalls. The tax cuts didn’t create jobs and just added to the deficit.

One way to solve our [deficit] problem right now is to increase the revenues. One way is to eliminate the ridiculous Bush tax cuts on wealthy people like me…. If our country is really broke, then we can’t afford to give tax cuts to people like me

afl-cio now blog, Wed June 7 2011