You have benefited from the low interest rates too, you know. Government debt is rolled over under new interest rates. The government has tallied up now over 20 trillion dollars of debt, half of which happened under near zero interest rates. When these rates rise, which they will, interests payments are expected to usurp defense spending as the 3rd biggest category of spending. The other two are social security and medicare which will rise with it.

You won't be able to pay down the deficit by taxing the rich. It turns they have way less than most people think they do & our expenses will be far higher than most people expect.

The reason the media calls it socialism is because its an attack on property rights which is the very foundation of capitalism. The calls for taxation are not really about raising revenue for government as their proponents want to expand entitlements programs which could only be payed for by taking out massive amounts of debt. The attacks on the wealthy are punitive.

It's one thing to live in a society with progressive taxation, it's another thing to treat the rich as if they were sinners. Remember, it's the wealthy who pay the bulk of taxes in the country. If they are treated as cash cows they will leave.