Well, to watch the financial shows today, you'd think that president Obama had just declared war on the upper class, by suggesting that the wealthiest 2% of Americans were going to be asked to pay a little more in taxes! It's like poking a stick in an anthill and watching the ants scurrying around in an uproar!

On CNBC the commentators were beside themselves decrying the class warfare and how awful it was going to be that the wealthiest among us were going to be asked to pony up a little more to get us through this mess (never mind that a bunch of them are the ones who got us here to begin with!)

Donny Deutsch (a guest on the panel) and self-professed wealthiest person in the building was the ONLY one to speak up and say this was a wise proposal. That he didn't mind one little bit being asked to pay more. I was embarrassed for all the others on the panel.

I would LOVE to see a report on exactly how much money they would actually have to pay, and exactly what they might have to cut out of their budgets to pay it.

I would venture to guess they will be able to pay their heating oil bills, and keep the Mercedes (even both of them!) and still go to the gym, and get the mani/pedi once a week. I doubt they will have to fire the gardener or the housekeeper (okay, maybe the live-in might have to go...) Vacations might have to be scaled back a bit...perhaps only 3 weeks in the south of France. A few might have to give up the 2nd (make that the 3rd) home. In rare cases they may have to fly coach instead of 1st class. The new matching Rolex's may have a wait. They may have to do without the $200.00 a bottle of wine and learn to love the $50.00 swill. That designer coat might have to last 2 years instead of just one season...You can see how traumatic it will be.

Now contrast that with those who have to decide whether to pay the heating oil bill or buy their kids medication. Those who are underwater with their mortgages and have to decide whether to struggle to keep paying it even though the house is not worth as much as they owe (even though they put 20% down on it!) or to walk away from it with the inevitable damage that will be done to their credit rating. Those who have played by the rules their whole lives, and now, through no fault of their own, find themselves with no health insurance and are being forced to declare bankruptcy because they can't pay their medical bills. Those who have to feed their children from the dollar menu at McDonald's because it is cheaper than buying real food at the grocery store.

Think about those who are one paycheck away from losing their jobs and can't sleep at night worrying about how they are going to keep their family from living in their car, if they still have one.
Imagine the children going to sleep hungry, day after day after day, and the pain of parents who have to watch it.

We have never in our lives made even close to the kind of money that will be the starting point for the higher taxes, not even when we were both working. Yet we've managed to send 3 kids to college, own two homes, and spend seven weeks in Maui this year. We have a comfortable life. It makes me physically sick to my stomach to watch them cry over the tiny little blip this will be in their lives, compared to the REAL hardship so many Americans face.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

And you know what? Just like I got a perverse enjoyment over watching the ants scurry out of the anthill when I was a child, I have to confess to getting that same feeling watching them running around this morning crying poor pitiful me...