WASHINGTON — Pay up, America.
Mayor Bloomberg took his call for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts to the national stage yesterday, saying all Americans — not just the wealthy — should pay to get the federal government out of its fiscal hole.
“We are all in this together,” Bloomberg said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We should all pony up and help close the deficit.”
He also called on elected officials to end rhetoric that he said is creating “class warfare.”
Hizzoner disagreed with President Obama, who has called for higher taxes only on the very wealthy.
“If you only raise taxes on the rich, you don’t get that much money,” Bloomberg, a billionaire himself, insisted.
“The only way you get $4 trillion — which is half the deficit that we need to close — is if you make sure the Bush tax cuts go away for everybody.”
He explained that the rich do pay their share — “but the bottom line is there aren’t many of them.”
He added that all Americans benefit from the government.
“And since everybody benefits, everybody should feel the pain a little bit, proportionately, up to their ability to pay,” Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said the GOP race for president needs only “one conservative candidate” who offers a contrast to front-runner Mitt Romney.
But he declined to say if Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum should drop out of the race.
“If it were just one conservative candidate, if Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich could agree somehow — toss a coin or have a good discussion — I think it would be a much more interesting race,” Giuliani said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”