make the rich pay the debt; problem solved.

The link I posted is talking about the total budget, of course, but that bit AL posted is what you could do to cover the deficit, just so that accumulated debt doesn't increase.

And then you could steal like a couple trillion by eating the billionaires and millionaires... that would make a "dent" (a small one) in the national debt. Then what? You already massacred the middle class, so there are no targets left.
 
It's completely correct, it's just so far outside your minuscule realm of understanding you are durabfounded by it.

You think we'd all just up and die without Goldman Sachs?
 
By the way, I love when people say this while totally ignoring that America's lower class are also among the richest people in the world today, not to mention in the history of mankind

BUT THE RICHERS HAVE EVEN MORE! IT'S NOT FAIR!
 
Personal incomes are different from capital gains. Which is why he keeps bringing up the personal income tax of billionaires. Billionaires don't necessarily get a terribly high income directly. Which is why they use capital gains tax rates of 15% instead of income tax at 35%, making their effective tax rate much lower.

In 2008, last year for stats....
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table4

Keep in mind this is income tax
The average tax rate on the top 1% was 23.27%
The average tax rate on the 1-5% was 17.21%

The top 1% paid $392B or around 38% of all income tax collected
The 1-5% group paid $214B or 21% of all income tax collected.
The top 5% of Americans paid around $600B.

Using the average rates, which will be wrong because they're averages and incomes can vary widely....we can get a general sense of what ball park we're talking about.If you taxed the top 1% at 100% of the average rate you'd supposedly (ignoring all negative consequences of such a decision) collect....$1.685 Trillion
If you taxed the 1-5% bracket at 100% of the average rate you'd collect an additional $1.243 Trillion.
You'd be +~$1.4T a year.....nearly 10% of the national debt in one year alone.
Yes taxing the wealthiest Americans at a 100% rate would make a dent in the US debt. Absolutely.
 
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