100% Taxes on the Evil Rich = Additional $400 Billion; Another $1,260 Billion Still to Raise!

Democrats and liberals have uniformly come out against Paul Ryan's budget proposals and have responded by playing the Marxist class-warfare card and demanding higher taxes on the rich. Whenever questioned about what to do with the current budget and debt, they reply 'increase taxes on the rich'. Over at blogs like Balloon Juice, a typical liberal blog that I occasionally troll on to, they cry out 'raise taxes on the rich' and anyone who says otherwise is 'brainwashed by Glen Beck'. It's the sort of nonsense that demands a serious look and some mathematics, and thankfully, someone who is good at math did that.

In Why we can't tax ourselves out of the deficit problem, Steve McCann crunches some numbers:

The tax year of 2008 was the last to date that the IRS has done this kind of analysis. In 2008 the highest marginal tax rate of 35% applied to all AGI above $357,700.00. In that year the total amount of AGI subject to the highest rate was $622.8 Billion. The government collected in taxes $218.0 Billion (35%).

In 2011 the annual budget deficit will be nearly $1,665.0 Billion and in 2012: $1,100.0 Billion. If the Liberal Democrats in league with the Socialists, the Unions and the Communists, succeed in raising the highest marginal rate, how much more would Washington D.C. receive, assuming no change in behavior and a general eagerness to pay more?

If the highest rate of 35% were raised by a factor of 20% to 42%, then the additional tax revenue would be $43.5 Billion, not much of a dent in $1,665.0 Billion. So, let's raise the rate by a factor of 50% to 52.5%; the additional revenue would be $108.9 Billion. Still nowhere near enough, so let's just tax it at a rate of 100%, bringing in an additional $404.8 Billion. Unfortunately the country is still $1,260.0 Billion in the hole for the year.

Obviously by confiscating at 100% of all the income of the so-called rich above a predetermined level, there would never again be an incentive to earn above the highest tax rate threshold.

So, in summary, if the federal government takes all of the wealth of the evil rich people in our nation who have innovated or invested or taken risks or worked hard for their wealth, then the federal government will only be stealing an average of 1 trillion dollars a year from my kids and grandkids (ie, debt).

We can not tax ourselves to prosperity. We need to cut, and not just cut a little bit, but cut a lot. Liberals and Democrats refuse to do that, and so next election, they and any Republicans who agree with them, must go.