Billionaires for a Billionaire Tax

I hope the wrong people don't pick up on this story that some German millionaires and billionaires are offering to give up an additional 10 percent of their income for 10 years to fix the budget.

A group of 51 German millionaires and billionaires founded a Club of the Wealthy and wrote to Chancellor Angela Merkel proposing to give up 10 percent of their income in the form of a "Rich Tax" for 10 years to consolidate the budget...

Catherine Rampell is exactly right. It's very sweet of the Germans to offer, and the U.S. Treasury won't send back your donations if you're feeling similarly altruistic. But voluntary donations aren't a solution for Germany or the U.S. (or any of the developed countries that ran huge deficits to catch the economic downturn). I sincerely hope the Glenn Becks of the right won't seize on this story and call on rich liberals to donate their wealth to the government if they're so dang interested in higher taxes. We don't need new charity. We need new laws.