Cato Institute Analysis: Seizing All Billionaire Wealth Would Cover Only 9% of DSA Platform Costs

A new analysis from the Cato Institute finds that even confiscating 100% of the wealth held by America’s 400 richest people would cover only a fraction of the cost of major policy proposals tied to the Democratic Socialists of America’s 2026 platform.

Cato reviewed nine major proposals associated with the platform and estimated their combined cost at somewhere between $71 trillion and $212 trillion over the next decade. Cato notes this is not a formal Congressional Budget Office score of a single piece of legislation, but rather a compilation of estimates from multiple studies meant to illustrate the potential scale of the policies.

Using the low end of that range, $71 trillion, Cato compared the cost against the total wealth held by the nation’s wealthiest individuals. The 400 richest Americans collectively held approximately $6.6 trillion in wealth in 2025, according to Cato’s estimate. Taking all of it — not a marginal tax rate, but the entire fortune, including businesses, stocks and other assets — would cover only about 9% of the low-end cost estimate.

Cato also modeled what would happen if every dollar of domestic corporate after-federal-tax profit were seized. The institute estimates corporations could generate roughly $35 trillion in after-tax profits over the next decade. Taking all of that as well would still leave the combined total covering only about half of the $71 trillion low-end figure.

The Deficit Problem

Cato’s analysis also points out that the federal government is separately projected to run roughly $24 trillion in deficits over the next decade under its baseline projections, before accounting for any new spending proposals.

The institute cites Joint Committee on Taxation economists who examined how much additional revenue could be raised by pushing top federal income tax rates toward the point at which they would generate the most possible revenue. Their conclusion: the additional revenue would amount to roughly $400 billion over 10 years, a relatively small figure attributed to changes in taxpayer behavior — including how people work, invest and structure their finances — in response to higher rates.

A Michigan Connection

The debate over aggressive wealth taxation has surfaced closer to home in Michigan, where a wealth-tax proposal from gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed has drawn scrutiny from legal scholar Jonathan Turley, who has argued the plan could damage the state’s economy.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s well-known observation — that the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money — is frequently invoked in these debates. Cato’s figures suggest the arithmetic behind large-scale wealth confiscation proposals remains a significant obstacle for advocates of sweeping new federal programs, regardless of the political merits of the underlying policy goals.