Defining who is wealthy is a distraction from the much bigger issue. The problem is the promise that “the wealthy” will pay for everything. The real cost of Build Back Better—assuming all the spending programs (which Democrats claim will be very popular) will be made permanent—is almost $5 trillion over 10 years, and that level of spending could continue indefinitely. This is on top of paying for Social Security and Medicare after those programs exhaust their trust funds. The Congressional Budget Office estimates debt will add up to about 200% of GDP in the next 30 years, even without the new entitlement programs in Build Back Better. And it could get much worse if interest rates rise and servicing the debt becomes a bigger burden. No matter how you define them, there simply aren’t enough high earners to pay for everything.
Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.