The combined wealth of American's billionaires is only $1.5 trillion. [1] If we taxed them 100%, it would only pay off our budget deficit for one year. We still have around 54 trillion total debt to pay down. Not to mention 115 trillion unfunded liabilities.
And which entrepreneurs would be stupid enough to work 14 hours a day and hire workers, knowing that the government will tax them 90%? They would all flee the country.
We have too much debt, period. From military, medicare, and social security spending. Problem is, if we reduce any one of these, either our soldiers returns home broke and angry, or the seniors die of starvation/disease. (35% of Americans already over the age of 65 rely almost entirely on Social Security payments alone. Median retirement savings of households over the age of 65 is less than $45,000).
Tough choice. But it looks like the current politicians aren't going to make a decision, but let Bernanke print dollars until hyperinflation arrives.
Stop fabricating numbers. The US National debt is about $14.5 trillion, not anywhere close to 54 trillion.
Btw, the Bush tax cuts — costing $1.8 trillion from 2002 to 2009 — are a big reason we got into this deep hole.
Buffet: I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
Had you checked the first google result for United States debt, you would have found where the confusion is coming from: the national debt is 14.5 trillion, and the total debt is 54 trillion (Source: http://www.usdebtclock.org/). I'm guessing "total debt" according to the debt clock includes things like state governments and private citizens, although Wikipedia claims that the 14.5 trillion figure is total debt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt).
And which entrepreneurs would be stupid enough to work 14 hours a day and hire workers, knowing that the government will tax them 90%? They would all flee the country.
We have too much debt, period. From military, medicare, and social security spending. Problem is, if we reduce any one of these, either our soldiers returns home broke and angry, or the seniors die of starvation/disease. (35% of Americans already over the age of 65 rely almost entirely on Social Security payments alone. Median retirement savings of households over the age of 65 is less than $45,000).
Tough choice. But it looks like the current politicians aren't going to make a decision, but let Bernanke print dollars until hyperinflation arrives.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/10/140943.html