The Left loves to decry that that “the rich get richer and poor get poorer”.  Their solution is always to tax the rich. Does taxing the rich lead to better income distribution? No, in fact, quite the opposite.

Let’s put this to the test using the latest data from the Census Bureau just released to the public.

One set of data I’m particularly fond of are the aggregate income tables found here.

These data show the % of the income held by each quintile income bracket.  In other words, if you sliced up taxpaying American households into 5 parts – what is the percentage of the total aggregate wealth in each bracket?

Using out trusty Many Eyes tool provided free by IBM we can give you an interactive graph of the same.

Let’s look at the data from 1967 – 2010:

Notice that distribution of income for the wealthiest jumps remarkably in 1993 after Clinton enacted what became known (even in Democrat circles) as the “largest tax increase in history.” The top 5th income bracket (those making over $100K a year) saw a huge bump in their percent take of all the money. In fact, if you narrow it to the top 5% of earners (those making $180,000 a year) their percentage jumped 13%!

Zooming in you can see this in action. Click on the last item on the left “Lowest fifth”.

The lowest fifth income earners (those making under $20,000 a year) saw their percentage command on the economy drop.

Notice that Obama has presided over the largest percentage drop in aggregate income for the poor – since they began keeping records.

So, we know what will happen if we raise taxes again. Fewer receipts and poorer poor among us.