Paul Krugman vs. The Affluent

Op-Ed Columnist - The Angry Rich and Taxes - NYTimes.com:

America must make hard choices, they?ll say; we all have to be willing to make sacrifices. But when they say ?we, they mean you.? Sacrifice is for the little people.

I'm forced to agree with Mr. Krugman on this one.

Essentially the politicans in Washington are arguing over $12,500. That's the increase a couple that makes $250,000 per year would see if the Bush Tax Cuts for the "wealthy" were allowed to expire. So, that couple would take home $150K instead of $162.5K in 2011 and beyond. My heart bleeds for them.

Mind you that these are the same people who have spent the last 18 months decrying the growth of the deficit since President Obama's inauguration (although they seem to have ignored it since the inauguration of Ronald Reagan). 

So now that it's time to make the tough decisions to get our country back to something approaching fiscal sustainability, all of a sudden they can't be bothered to make the sacrifices they've been asking others to make for a while now.

Now, granted, if you make more than $250K per year, you'll be paying a more than the $12,500 above, but all I know is that if I was taking home $150K or more every year, I'd have more money than I knew what to do with, making it pretty hard to complain about a slight increase in my marginal tax rate.