Millionaire challenge

Tuesday I challenged any real business owner making over $1 million a year to contact me to discuss the proposed millionaire surtax to pay for the President’s American Jobs Act.   (A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows about 64% public approval for both the surtax and jobs plan). 

The U.S. Chamber, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the rest of the millionaire defenders club called The Tax Relief Coalition claim that 80% of taxpayers making over a million a year are “business owners”.   Since there are 4500 South Carolina taxpayers with this kind of income, that would mean that there are 3600 “business owners” making $1 million a year.  Surely one of these people could accept my challenge.

As of today, no one has contacted me and now I know why.  The numbers from the Coalition are phony (what a surprise).  According to the Tax Policy Center only 1 percent of taxpayers reporting any business income make over $1 million a year. 

So there are really only about 45 South Carolinians who could accept my challenge.  And I’m willing to bet that few if any of these 45 actually run a small business.  The rest are passive investors not Main Street business folks.

Never-the-less, the fear mongering on how increasing taxes on the very wealthy will hurt small businesses continues.  An analysis that debunks all the funny math in these arguments can be found in a piece by Zach Carter and Sam Stein in today’s Huffington Post.  Check it out.