Politics

Senator: Higher taxes make rich ‘feel good’ when they ‘look in the mirror’

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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New Jersey Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg said on the Senate floor that raising taxes on the wealthy will make them “feel good” when they “look in the mirror.”

“I’ll tell this to all of my colleagues and I hope they hear me. I think it’s time for people like me — who have made money — to pay something back to give strength to our country and not argue about whether … they pay enough tax — they don’t pay enough tax,” said Lautenberg, former chairman and CEO of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) on Thursday.

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“Warren Buffet says they don’t pay. They listen to him that they don’t pay enough tax. It doesn’t hurt those of us who have been successful the least bit to pay a few more percent in taxes, and you can feel good about it. Look in the mirror after you put something into the value that your country needs that strengthens the working class of people, that tells them ‘listen, we’ve gotten our share and now it’s our responsibility to give back some part of that share.”

President Barack Obama has proposed higher tax rates for individuals making $200,000 or more per year — and families making over $250,000 — in addition to creating a special tax rate for those making over $1 million.

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