Washington, D.C.  – Citizens for Tax Justice, USAction and Wealth for the Common Good today praised a House Ways & Means proposal to apply a surcharge on the income of the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

USAction Program Director Alan Charney called the surcharge proposal “a game changer” and said identifying the savings proposed by President Obama and raising significant revenue will lower health care costs for American families. “Investing in health care means investing in families: their health, their security, their overall well-being,” Charney said. “But for this to happen, the wealthiest Americans – those making up the top one percent of the income bracket – are going to have to pay their fair share. They must help shoulder the costs of paying for quality, affordable health care reform with a public health insurance option.”

Robert S. McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, said the proposed surcharge “would essentially ask the richest one percent of Americans to give back some of their Bush tax cuts. By the end of 2010, the richest one percent will have received $700 billion from the Bush tax cuts. The surcharge would be paid almost entirely by this group and would amount to $550 billion over the following decade."

Citizens for Tax Justice on Tuesday released a new report that examines the policy implications of a surcharge on households with incomes over $350,000. The report includes comprehensive, state-by-state information stating the average impact on taxpayers at different income levels. In Alabama, for example, only 0.9 percent of the state’s population would pay the surcharge. Nationally, the surcharge would raise $540-$550 billion to fund quality, affordable health care for all, including a public health insurance option.

A copy of the report is available here: www.ctj.org/payingforhealthcare.htm

Chuck Collins, co-founder, Wealth for the Common Good, said the “urgent need to revamp our health care system has been slowed by the lack of a plan to finance it. Members of Wealth for the Common Good are aware of both the urgency to reform health care and the unfairness of the current tax structure. The proposed surcharge would greatly reverse some of the most regressive elements of our federal taxes and fix our broken health system.”

"Medical care should be a basic right,” added Eric Schoenberg, a former partner in a New York City investment bank and member of Wealth for the Common Good. “Wealthy people have benefited enormously from economic growth during the past 30 years. It is only fair that those of us who have benefited the most support a fair and equitable system moving forward.”

Wealth for the Common Good is an emerging network of business leaders and high net worth individuals who support fair taxation and shared responsibility.

Citizens for Tax Justice, USAction and Wealth for the Common Good are members of Rebuild and Renew America Now, a coalition of 71 national organizations and 575 local and state groups that support responsible and fair tax policies to raise the revenue that is needed to pay for important investments such as health care, clean energy, education and infrastructure needs. For more information, please visit www.rebuildandrenew.org