Taking from the rich

Published 12:15 pm Monday, September 13, 2010

Forbes Magazine lists the 400 richest Americans and their combined wealth totaling $1.27 trillion. The projected 2011 federal budget totals $3.9 trillion and projects a $1.2 trillion deficit. The budget projects revenues of $2.8 trillion for 2011.

If the federal government confiscated the wealth of the 400 richest Americans, the revenue would erase the projected deficit for 2011.

The largest American corporations have $1.35 trillion in cash on their balance sheets. If the federal government confiscated the cash held by these corporations, it would reduce the federal deficit 10 percent from $13.4 trillion to $12 trillion.

Confiscating wealth from rich Americans or from large corporations is unconstitutional and would not solve the spending crisis. If taking 100 percent of their money doesn’t make a wave, anything less will be a drop in the bucket. As a nation we are drowning in debt.

Jim Haskin, Bellevue