“This president is giving me millions of dollars. Do you think I need that?” ­– Matt Damon, ABC Primetime Live.

“It seems to me that instead of cutting taxes, we ought to be increasing taxes to pay off the deficit….” – Walter Cronkite, CNN NewsNight.

The quotes are from 2004 and 2003 respectively, but are just as true today. Upper-income taxpayers are still pocketing huge Bush and Clinton-era tax cuts while our national debt soars, educational needs are unfunded and New Orleans remains in shambles.

George W. Bush inherited a projected $5.1 trillion, 10-year budget surplus and gave most of it away in tax cuts for the wealthy. Six years later, we face a $237 billion annual deficit and over $8.7 trillion of national debt – and yet wealthy taxpayers are still receiving windfall savings.

Epicureans, few of whom are multi-millionaires, can do two things – – either they can shrug their shoulders and laugh up their sleeves at the ravening greed of the super-rich (who can’t spend all their money anyway),  secure in the knowledge that actually Epicureans have more rewarding lives; or they can suggest that the super-rich start paying tax (most stuff their money into tax havens and pay little or nothing) and help to re-build the basic infrastructure of the country that has been allowed to decay over many years.   And that is without addressing other issues like healthcare, education etc.