Raising Taxes On The Rich

Yesterday this blog asked the question: 'How much revenue are you going to extract out of "the rich" if the tax rates expire?' because partisan whack jobs and economic illiterates like ISU Economics "Professor" Sue Ravenscroft never mention it in their defense of class warfare.

Here's the alleged answer.  Ezra Klein, a lefty, says in his November 30th Washington Post column:

the tax cuts for income over $250,000, which benefit workers doing much better than the average federal employee and cost about $700 billion over 10 years

$700 billion over 10 years would be about $70 billion a year, right?

Hey, Ezra and Sue, how much was the deficit in the past fiscal year?

According to WikiDikiPedia, the 2009 fiscal year deficit was $1.42 trillion dollars.

That means if the US had higher tax rates already for those with incomes over $250,000, the deficit in the 2009 fiscal year would have only been $1.35 trillion.

Is the math correct there?  $1.42 trillion minus $70 billion is $1.35 trillion.

What a dent!

That Obama and this Congress is really tackling the deficit!  Give our B+ President some credit!

Meanwhile, Sue Ravenscroft, raising taxes on the "rich" in Iowa will cost the state at least $30 million a year due to Federal deductibility, something you must have purposefully declined to mention in your recent letter to the Des Moines Register, considering one of your fellow ISU colleagues loudly proclaimed that a few months ago.