Patriotic Millionaires: Biden’s Medicare Tax Proposal is Just What the Doctor Ordered

President Joe Biden, as a part of his upcoming budget proposal, will call for an increase in taxes for wealthy Americans, including on capital gains income, to shore up funding for Medicare. This proposal comes in the face of Republicans stating that they want to reduce the federal budget deficit without raising taxes, threatening the funding of vital programs millions of Americans rely on.

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

President Biden’s new budget proposal is just what the doctor ordered. There’s more than enough money in America to fund Medicare, we just need to tax the rich. The wealthiest Americans, particularly those living off of their investments, can and should be paying more. The rich have an obligation to support the societies and communities that made their financial success possible, and they have been skating by for far too long paying less than what they should.

The United States of America has to choose between imposing a sacrifice on the rich, by increasing their taxes, or imposing a sacrifice on the poor, by decreasing their health care. The vast majority of the people, including many rich people, want to tax the rich.

President Biden’s budget propositions draw a stark contrast with Republicans, who are using a threat to refuse to pay expenses already incurred to hold the global economy hostage in an attempt to cut Medicare. This has to stop. Vital programs like Medicare should not be sacrificed on the altar of lower taxes for the rich.