Episode 86: Will Taxing the Rich Alone Solve Our Fiscal Challenges?

Every once in a while the idea of fixing all our fiscal problems by taxing the top 1% of the population is proposed, but it’s time to do the math and see if it’s true. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget put out a report a few years ago, prior to the latest spending due to Covid-19, where they analyzed what it would take to actually balance the budget. The first scenario looks at balancing the budget by not adding any more to the existing debt. The challenge with this scenario is that the interest on the existing debt will crowd out other expenses in the federal budget over time as interest rates rise in the future. In order to balance the budget of the federal government by increasing taxes on only the top marginal tax bracket, they would have to increase it to 102%. Everything earned over $400,000 would be taxed at 100% and then some. When they looked at how high tax rates would have to go if they included anyone that made more than $250,000 a year, the tax rates would hav...