Let’s look at the root of the problem here. The government is in big-time debt. Is it because we don’t raise enough in revenue? No. The government spends way too much of taxpayers’ money foolishly.

Take a look at this quote from “The O’Reilly Factor” from Wednesday night: “An audit by the Justice Department shows that the federal government was guilty of extravagant and wasteful spending at a number of law enforcement conferences. At a training conference in 2009, $4,200 was spent on 250 muffins, which adds up to $16 per muffin. I’m sure they were delicious, but the $16 muffin now becomes a symbol of how wasteful the feds are with our tax dollars. In 2008, two coffee breaks cost the American taxpayer $15,600, which worked out to $52 per person.”

These are just two small examples of needless spending by the Feds, including the millions of dollars they spent to create jobs but hardly created any at all. But that is another discussion. Now I realize this is a column focused on taxes, so let’s go there now. I am middle class. I don’t want to pay more than a millionaire. But I don’t think it is necessary for him to pay more than his fair share for money that he earned. I believe the solution is a flat tax with loopholes eliminated.

If President Barack Obama really cares about revenue and not class warfare (yes, I said it), he will try to make changes to the tax code so that we can get revenue without punishing people who achieve. I am also quick to point out that the 15 percent tax Obama talked about the wealthy paying (your article said 18 percent) is a long-term capital-gains tax, not the federal income tax.

Capital-gains tax is money taxed on profits from invested money that has already been taxed at the 35 percent rate. President Obama said himself in 2009 in an interview with MSNBC on August 5, 2009, “The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up — take more demand out of the economy.” Yes we need to fix the tax code, but punishing people who make jobs is delirious.

Before we consider raising taxes on anyone, we need to cut back on spending. Plain and simple.