Why not? Well, leaving aside such trifling concerns as law, morality, justice, fairness, etc, even confiscating the wealth of “The Rich” wouldn’t make a sizable dent in the deficit.
“According to Internal Revenue Service data,” the Wall Street Journal reported today,
the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion. Even if all these Americans — most of whom are far from wealthy — were taxed at 100%, it wouldn’t cover Mr. Obama’s deficit for this year [emphasis added].
In his now abandoned — indeed, apparently forgotten — 2012 budget submitted to thunderous derision only two months ago, President Obama himself predicted, perhaps optimistically, that this year’s budget would be $1.6 trillion, the largest in American history.