I guess the question is how you define the idle rich and how many we have in this country. When you hear Dems talk about the top 1% getting all those tax breaks, it includes many people who are not in the same ballpark as Buffett, Gates, etc. The link I provided shows the AGI of the top 1% is $350,000. I understand that's not gross income, but I don't think it includes only the idle rich, either. Many of those in that top 1% earned their money the old fashion way and are business owners.

I'm not sure there are enough of the so-called idle rich to pay for all the things the Dems want to pay for. But I probably wouldn't care if it was just them targeted. Listening to some of the Dem proposals about rolling back the tax cuts, they are including families who make $250,000. That's far from idle rich, and depending on where you live, that's not even in the rich category.

Maybe we need to define rich.

The top 1% cedrtainly seems to be paying a large share of taxes, but it really falls apart under any type of analysis. The top 1% owns about 48% of the wealth in this country, and they earn a much larger percentage of the income when all sources are included.

I think the answer is a simplified tax code without deductions and itemizations. You pay a fixed percentage based on total income.