Ignoring the inevitable OWS flame war that’s going on here since I have law class in a few minutes. I just ran across this:

Coburn: End ‘Welfare For The Well-Off’

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) thinks it’s time America’s millionaires pay their fair share.

And in a new report — titled “Subsidizing the Rich and Famous” — Coburn makes an argument for closing loopholes for millionaires. “From tax write-offs for gambling losses, vacation homes, and luxury yachts to subsidies for their ranches and estates, the government is subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and famous,” Coburn writes in the report. “This welfare for the well-off — costing billions of dollars a year — is being paid for with the taxes of the less fortunate, many who are working two jobs just to make ends meet, and IOUs to be paid off by future generations.”

In total, Coburn’s report claims that millionaires receive $30 billion in benefits from tax giveaways and federal grant programs every year. Almost 1,500 millionaires didn’t pay income tax in 2009, according to the report. The report further breaks down the numbers: $74 million of unemployment checks, $316 million in farm subsidies and $16 million in government-backed loans for college.

So in essence, Coburn is calling for millionaires to receive a little less from the government. If you’re wealthy, and you can afford to pay more for health care as you get older, Coburn argues you should. If you’re a millionaire farmer, you don’t need government farm subsidies. Those farm program payouts, Coburn argues, were intended to encourage low-income farmers, and millionaires don’t need that encouragement.