Fact Sheet: Why Soaking the So-Called Rich Won’t Solve Debt Crisis

President’s Continued Class Warfare Politics Don’t Even Come Close to Putting Nation Back in Black

Over the next decade, the President’s budget places an additional $13 trillion in debt on the backs of the American people. That’s $3.6 billion per day for the next 3,653 days. The White House’s response? Tax hikes on yachts and corporate jets. While the populist class warfare makes for a good talking point, how much of a dent will these proposed revenue raisers actually put in the nation’s mountainous debt? Not much, according to an analysis by the Senate Finance Committee Republicans.

Here are the facts by the numbers:

Tax Hikes on Corporate Jets:
If Congress were to raise the depreciable life on corporate jets from 5 years to 7 years, as proposed by the Administration, it would yield $3.1 billion over 10 years. It would chip away 20 hours and 23 minutes of the debt over the next decade.

Tax Hikes on Yachts:
If Congress were to cut back the mortgage interest deduction for yachts used as second homes, it would yield $2.4 billion covering just 15 hours and 47 minutes of the nation’s debt.

Tax Hikes on American Made Energy:
Raising Taxes on American energy companies will yield $21 billion in new revenue. How many days would this cover in the 10 year debt? Just five days, 18 hours and 47 minutes.

Tax Hikes on the Rich:
If all of the income of those earning more than $1 million were confiscated with a 100 percent rate – with the unlikely assumption of no taxpayer behavioral response – for the year of confiscation, it would yield about $893 billion, eliminating just 244 days, 16 hours and 34 minutes off of the 10 years of projected debt from the Obama Administration.

The bottom line: these proposed tax hikes won’t even be a chink in the armor against the nation’s debt. When you add the revenue raised from the Obama Administration’s proposed tax hikes, the amount would shave less than one year and doesn’t event reach one-tenth of the debt the Administration will add over the next 10 years.

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