Matt Damon: 'I Need To Pay More Taxes'

Why is it wealthy liberals don’t understand that if they want to pay more income taxes, they can each year on their 1040 form make an additional contribution to the federal government above and beyond what they owe?

Consider the case of actor Matt Damon who on PBS’s Tavis Smiley Show Wednesday actually said, “I need to pay more taxes” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

TAVIS SMILEY, HOST: Do you think that ultimately on the things that matter to you, the things that matter to me, that Obama as president is going to be on the right side of history?

MATT DAMON: I desperately hope so, because we need that. And people need that. I don’t need that, I am in the one percent. So I need to pay more taxes. It’s the truth. You know, I don’t begrudge, I don’t drive by a fire house and see guys playing cards and begrudge the fact that my taxes pay them, because every once in a while, the bell goes off and those guys run into a burning building for people who are strangers, for people who are my friends, or their cats. You know? And I don’t want to do that. You know? I don’t know that I’m built to do that. Maybe I am, but I would rather pay another percent or two for some, you know, police who are going to make sure that, you know, our kids are safe and we’re safe. You know? Occasionally, they put themselves in harm's way.

And I like driving on nice roads. You know, I believe, you know, I just, I believe that we’re all in it together. And I don’t, and I wonder, you know, these people who get so angry about a couple more percentage points. It’s like, “What, I mean, what are you talking about? Really. You know. You want to see what life looks like without that? Go to the Congo. You know? There are rich people in Haiti, go check it out. Do you want to live there?” You know?

I mean, it’s like, so, for me, I, you know, those issues of social justice as well, like, for me, those are the most important. I’m reading a lot about Bobby Kennedy right now. So here’s somebody who writes about poverty, but those things that he was fighting against towards the end of his life, and fighting for, there hasn’t been a lot of movement, you know, statistically on a lot of that stuff. And that’s 40 some odd years ago, and that’s pretty sad.

Actually, if anything, despite the trillions of tax dollars that have gone to fight poverty in the past 50 years or so, there are more people living in poverty than there were when the "war" on it began.

As rich liberals hate "wasting" money on wars they oppose, why are they virtually all so willing to spend more on this "war" despite its obvious failure?

Far more importantly, if Damon was really concerned about the poor, why doesn’t he give 90 percent of his current wealth to charity?

According to our friends at CelebrityNetWorth.com, he’s worth $65 million and earns about $24 million a year.

As such, rather than paying more taxes, he should take $60 million and donate it to a variety of charities devoted to helping those in poverty.

He'll still have $5 million along with his astonishing income to live a much finer lifestyle than the 99 percent he claims to be concerned with.

Then he'd actually walk the walk he demands others far less well off than him do.

Just saying.