In an article in the National Review, How Much Money Do the Rich Have?, Robert VerBruggen writes about the proposition to close the $1.1 trillion budget gap by taxing the rich.
He finds, based on 2008 IRS returns, that "the rich" make $2.5 trillion. He then subtracts the amount it takes to reach the "rich" threshold, $200,000, from each of these taxpayers' incomes. This leads him to the conclusion that the amount that "the rich" make in excess of the $200,000 threshold is only $1.6 trillion.
Based on these numbers, VerBruggen concludes that we could not close the budget gap by increasing taxation on "the rich."
Posted by Kyle Petit, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.
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