Taxing Just Ain't Gonna Cut It | Nealz Nuze | www.boortz.com

Taxing Just Ain't Gonna Cut It

By Neal Boortz

Over the last few weeks, I have given you similar stats to the ones I’m about to give you. But no matter how many times I read it, and no matter how many different ways you slice it, it’s amazing to me that there are people out there who genuinely believe that our fiscal troubles could be solved by simply increasing taxes on the filthy, disgusting, putrid rich people. Take a look at these examples from the Wall Street Journal:

Consider the Internal Revenue Service’s income tax statistics for 2008, the latest year for which data are available. The top 1% of taxpayers—those with salaries, dividends and capital gains roughly above about $380,000—paid 38% of taxes. But assume that tax policy confiscated all the taxable income of all the “millionaires and billionaires” Mr. Obama singled out. That yields merely about $938 billion, which is sand on the beach amid the $4 trillion White House budget, a $1.65 trillion deficit, and spending at 25% as a share of the economy, a post-World War II record.

Say we take it up to the top 10%, or everyone with income over $114,000, including joint filers. That’s five times Mr. Obama’s 2% promise. The IRS data are broken down at $100,000, yet taxing all income above that level throws up only $3.4 trillion. And remember, the top 10% already pay 69% of all total income taxes, while the top 5% pay more than all of the other 95%.

So what if we hike it up to those evil rich people earning $500,000 a year? CNSNews ran the numbers and found the following …

If the federal government had increased the income-tax rate on Americans earning more than $500,000 to 100 percent in 2009--and seized the remaining $773 billion in income it had not initially taken away from these Americans--that would have closed the federal deficit for the year to $839 billion ($838,988,236,899.90).

After taxing away 100 percent of the income of those earning $500,000 or more in 2009, the Obama administration would still have needed to increase taxes on Americans earning less than $500,000 by a total of $839 billion--just to balance federal accounts for the year.

Look, folks .. the S&P didn’t downgrade its outlook because we don’t tax people enough. It didn’t downgrade its outlook because we aren’t collecting enough revenue from rich people. It didn’t downgrade its outlook because “millionaires” and “billionaires” aren’t paying more than their “fair share.” It downgraded its outlook because we are spending too much stinkin’ money. This isn’t rocket surgery!