Taking from the Rich   

   Where do we go from here? 

   Mayor Bill de Blasio: "There's plenty of money. It's just in the wrong hands." 

   Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: "A system that allows billionaires to exist" is immoral.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world - of course we can afford these investments." (Never mind, $20-plus trillion in debt.) 

   Progressives could raise $4.7 trillion for fiscal year 2020 by confiscating all income from the wealthiest Americans. 

   Starting at the top, that requires all the taxable earnings of more than 35 million Americans, all those earning over $65,000/year (which would include all members of Congress and mayors such as de Blasio). 

   Or, they could outlaw billionaires, starting with the Forbes 400. Trump's proposed 2020 budget would spend $13 billion/day. 

   Jeff Bezos could forfeit his net worth, $160 billion, to fund the federal government for 12 days. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet could get us to January 27. 

   Taking all the wealth of the Forbes 400 only funds government to mid-August. 

   These "former" billionaires would become a welfare expense, rather than a revenue source. And we've bankrupted state and local governments that depend on the success of wealthy Americans. 

   Progressives say corporations are not paying their share. Some deserve criticism, and reforms are worth exploring. But corporations provide income to working Americans who in turn pay individual income taxes.

   Stocks and bonds of corporations are the core of pension, investment and college funds for many citizens. 
 

Stephen Patton, WORLD magazine

   Painting the wealthy as Ebenezer Scrooges may sound right to low-information voters. Plundering those who know how to create wealth will indeed achieve income equality - everyone equally poor, as in Cuba.

       Jimmy