Raising taxes is not going to help pay off the national debt. What many fail to realize is that rich will always be rich. For one reason, they know how to manage their money. They now how to avoid taxes and they plan for a rainy day. Do you think Boone Pickens gives out large sums of money because he is nice guy? The main reason he gives away so much money is for tax purposes. If he retains that money, he lose even more money to taxes. Do you think most celebrites really give a rats ass about charities? The motive is all behind the need to do money dump and it is always nice to have positive photo op.

The middle class is the one suffers tax increases. The rich lay off people from their businesses, and homes. They stop buying as often which leads to layoffs at retailers, manufactures and service oriented businesses.

Taxing the rich is a politicans cure all for every problem. Raising

If anything the US government needs to look at cutting spending. Every major company in the United States has restructured their organization. We need to look at combining agencies, I think the majority of goverment agencies could be turned over to the states with federal regulation and oversite. Trim down the government were it is a lean machine.