The Great Recession has worsened inequality, and the wealthiest Americans have emerged unscathed—richer in some cases. Meanwhile, conservative officials are hacking away at programs for struggling poor and middle class households. Shared sacrifice is more important now than it has ever been. That's what we're fighting for and we hope you'll join us.

United for a Fair Economy and Responsible Wealth have been working on several fronts this month to spread word that the wealthiest Americans need to pay their fair share in taxes. Why? Because they've benefitted the most from our collective investments and should pay it forward so others have the opportunity to do the same.

Here are a few highlights of the coverage we've earned through our various efforts.

We participated in a Congressional briefing with a tax fairness all star panel moderated by the intrepid John Nichols of The Nation magazine. The event banded together representatives from five outstanding organizations, including Responsible Wealth director Mike Lapham, to discuss ways to generate federal revenue and revive our suffocating economy by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Our efforts paid off in a big way. The night before the event, we received word that C-SPAN would be there to nationally broadcast the discussion. It was a standing room only event with a very engaged audience. The country watched, learned and shared. And, so can you.

The Congressional briefing was the opening act for President Obama's address on the Buffett Rule. He enlisted the support of four millionaires, including Responsible Wealth supporter Abigail Disney, to stand with him in support of the millionaires' tax.

David Levine

David Levine, Responsible Wealth supporter and former chief economist for investment management firm Sanford C. Bernstein, participated in another panel discussion with the Tax Policy Center.

The panelists explored this basic question: "Should the rich pay higher taxes?" David's expert perspective on marginal income tax rates garnered a citation on MSNBC.com and an extensive interview by Ezra Klein at the Washington Post.

One of our most active Responsible Wealth members, former investment banker and current Columbia professor of behavioral economics, Eric Schoenberg, spoke at a tax day rally in DC and blasted away at leading tax grump Grover Norquist. Eric's words were well-received by the energized crowd and are now making their way through the progressive blogosphere.

UFE's federal tax expert Lee Farris went on Between the Lines radio to discuss sensible ways to address our revenue crisis, including the Buffett Rule, ending the Bush tax cuts, "taxing wealth like work" by raising the capital gains rate and strengthening the federal estate tax. Listen now.

Responsible Wealth and our allies working with other affluent fair tax advocates have been making so much noise from the east coast that they heard us clear across the country. The San Francisco Chronicle threw us all a shout-out this week in a column about wealthy people of the west coast demanding that their taxes be raised.

This work is ongoing, and we can always use more support. You can still take action to help move a fair tax agenda forward. One specific way is to calculate your share of the awful Bush-era tax cuts and redirect those savings toward tax fairness organizing efforts by taking Responsible Wealth's Tax Fairness Pledge.

As an added treat, here are some photos from the tax day rally we joined in Boston. There were a lot of feet on the street, a lot of creative demonstrations and a lot of voices calling on Bank of America and other financial giants to stop tax dodging and pay their fair share. After all, we did bail them out. Now it's time to get ours. Yes, the tax justice movement is-a growin'.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.