Americans agree, rich people should pay higher taxes - Apr. 22, 2011
But is raising taxes on the rich the best way to cut the deficit? Not really. It could be part of a larger set of measures, but on its own, wouldn’t raise all that much revenue.
Why? There just aren’t that many rich people out there.
Hiking everyone’s tax rate by 1 percentage point would yield an additional $480 billion over 10 years. By contrast, raising the top two tax rates by 1 percentage point would yield just $115 billion.
Tax dollars buying less and less
If Obama got his way, taxes would go up on individuals making at least $200,000 and couples making $250,000 and up. That would reduce deficits by just under $1 trillion over 10 years.
Unfortunately, this year’s deficit alone is expected to hit about $1.5 trillion.