Senator Joe Biden thinks it’s patriotic for wealthy Americans to pay more in taxes.

If your patriotism is measured by how much you pay, I would argue that the wealthy are pretty gosh darn patriotic. According to our handy Who Pays Income Taxes chart, the top 10 percent of earners (with adjusted gross income of more than $108,904) paid over 70 percent of the federal personal income tax collections in 2006.

Does Senator Biden question the patriotism of those who don’t pay income taxes? Of all the personal income tax returns filed in 2005, 32 percent of filers (mostly at the low end of the income spectrum) had no effective tax burden with “non-paying” returns.

Looking at charitable giving, Senator Biden “gives significantly less money to charity as a percentage of his household income than the average American.” And I’m fine with that. It’s his choice on how much he wants to give. But he shouldn’t be forcing Americans to “donate” via higher taxes to cover his $250 million request for earmark spending.

If Senator Biden feels he can burnish his patriotism credentials by sending more money to the federal government, he can send a check payable Bureau of the Public Debt (in the memo section, notate that it is a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public) to this address:

Attn Dept G
Bureau Of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188

No, Mr. Biden, our patriotism does not correlate with how much we pay in taxes. In fact, some of the most patriotic people in our nation's history were involved with revolts over high taxes. You'd do well to remember that.

HT: Libby Wright