Bloomberg Favors Raising Everybody’s Taxes

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a New York City radio station that taxes should not be raised on just the upper class.

“If you want to raise taxes, don’t pick one class of people and say, ‘I think they have too much money,’ or ‘I don’t think they have enough money,’ or whatever,” Bloomberg said Friday, according to the New York Daily News. “Raise everybody’s taxes 1 or 2 percent or whatever.”

He was answering a question from a caller to his weekly radio show who wanted to know how he would have managed the recent battle in Washington over raising the debt ceiling. Bloomberg said he favored a combination of revenue enhancements and expense cuts.

Bloomberg’s attitude toward raising taxes on not only the wealthy, but also lower-income taxpayers, contrasted with an editorial for The New York Times by fellow multibillionaire Warren Buffett, who said that higher income brackets should be created for those making over $1 million and over $10 million (see Buffett Says Tax Code is ‘Coddling the Super-Rich’). “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress,” said Buffett.