Here's the rub. The rich could chip in EVERYTHING...as in 100% of their income and you wouldn't come close to paying for all these entitlements. Not even close.
Then, when you consider the rich already chip in more than any other nation (and more than they ever have here in America), you begin to see the futility of your argument. Taxing the rich more will not raise the revenues to pay for entitlements. Not by a long shot. The fact is, it will most likely result in less revenue for whatever spending is on tap.
And please, don't give us this "wealth distribution" crap. You should be smart enough to know that wealth is not some finite pile from which we all must draw. Just because someone is rich doesn't mean someone else has to be poor. Further, America does NOT have the largest so called wealth gap. Lastly, only America's so called "poor" are considered rich by world standards...in the 84th percentile of worldwide wealth if I remember the statistic correctly. And when you look at what America's poor owns in way of assets, it's mind boggling.
Bottom line, Republicans fighting for deficit reduction is a good thing, regardless of how they've contributed to it in the past. The Dem plan of taking us beyond $20 trillion in debt is immoral. There is no reason those yet to be born should be burdened with the debt of our largess.
Immoral is saying that the rich should not be taxed more and then turning around and saying that the poor should work harder, work longer and expect less and less.
My goodness man, you talk like the money we work for doesn't belong to us in the first place! And you talk about our "poor" like they're actually poor...when they're not!
Further, you continue to overlook that raising tax rates on the rich will not likely result in any more revenues. How is that going to help the so called poor?
The people should be hungrier, sicker, and totally give up on the idea of social mobility but god forbid the only people to see income growth in thirty years be somehow held responsible for this mess.
Nobody is hungry in America. The last Census data proved that irrefutably. You talk about the poor in America like they are totally dependent on hand outs from others. That's just sad, and untrue. All Americans THRIVED from before the founding of the country well into the 20th century WITHOUT any income tax and without any redistribution of income. More poor became middle class and more middle class became rich than at any other time in history...but that wasn't good enough? All of a sudden it's immoral not take even more money from those that have earned it? That's insane.
You cannot sidestep the debt. There is NO WAY we can continue these entitlements on revenue that can be generated from US taxpayers. They debt will fall on those yet to be born and it will crush them as that kind of debt has in every society in history. We thrived without all that spending in the past, we can again.