Cass - We don't have a "tax" problem as such. We have a spending problem. The bottom line is that the government spends too much money and the debt is too high. Both spending and debt must get under control. Here's an analogy of what is going on:

Tax Revenue: $2,170,000,000,000

Budget: $3,820,000,000,000

New Debt: $1,650,000,000,000

Total Debt: $14,271,000,000,000

Recent Cuts: $38,500,000,000

Now let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

Family Income: $21,700

Family Spent: $38,200

New Debt on Credit: $16,500

Balance on Credit: $142,710

Budget Cuts: $385

How long do you think your family would last using these numbers??? Your solution to Tax the Rich would add - your figures, $350,000,000,000 to Revenue. In the Family analogy this would add $3500 extra per year - still a large shortfall and still increasing, untenable debt. I haven't even added the interest charges to this mounting debt. So with that it is even worse.

What needs to be done is cut spending on all the budget and to completely overhaul the tax code so that everyone, including business pays taxes. By doing this the rates could come down and the revenues would increase. You are always telling us that you are concerned about the Tax rate - your is too high and the rich's rate is too low. If the tax code were revised to eliminate loopholes and deductions (we can argue which deductions to keep) you could lower everyone's tax rate and actually generate more tax revenue. Example - your favorite - if we have a 10% current rate on the rich and they have a $1,000,000/yr. income this would be a tax of $100,000. With deductions and loopholes it drops their taxable income to $500,000 it generates a tax of $50,000.(what they currently pay) Now, if we eliminate most deductions and loopholes the taxable income, say would be $850,000. You could lower the tax rate to 7.5% and generate $63,750 which is $13,750 more than they currently pay. But to just say "tax the rich" gets us nowhere. This helps the poor much better than a national sales tax - which would hurt the poor.