Some background for capital gains tax issues

Bloomberg reports that the top 1% creamed off 93% of the increase in U.S. economic product. This is a whole lot less sustainable than the allegedly unsustainable national debt.

It also, and this is only stating the very, very obvious, blows a hole in any argument for further lowering taxes on the rich. Even if we admit (against evidence) that reducing marginal tax rates on high-income people somehow magically increases job-creating investment, at the 93% level any incremental increases in the effect have to be negligible.

You wouldn't know it from listening to John Boehner, but the reason jobs are not being created is not that capital for investment is lacking.

Nut graf:

In this recovery it’s proved better to own stock than a house. For stockholders like Hemsley, the value of all outstanding shares has soared $6 trillion to $17 trillion since June 2009, the recession’s end. Even after a recent rebound, the value of owner-occupied housing, the chief asset of most middle- income families, has dropped $41 billion in the same period, part of a $5.8 trillion loss in home values since 2006.

This is the difference between reality- and faith-based economics.