Bernie Sanders and AOC just completed their tour of America to sell-out crowds. Their message was a familiar one: oligarchs (mainly Republicans) are becoming more and more wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Is this true?

In reality, this is not a true or false proposition. The answer is much more intriguing and way too subversive of their politics for Bernie and AOC to even contemplate.

I spent much of my working life in the field of taxation. I have heard all the jokes about death and taxes, green eyeshades, and accountants walking into bars. So, bear with me as we take a closer look at the government’s efforts to narrow the wealth gap.

The data are pretty clear. In 1990, the top 21 percent owned 61 percent of the country’s wealth. By 2023, they owned 70 percent. So, yes, the rich are getting richer.

Bernie offers a number of suggestions to close the wealth gap: more taxes on the affluent, higher minimum wages, more welfare. He has in the past supported basic universal income, a scheme whereby everyone is guaranteed a minimum income, regardless of the individual’s ability, education, or work ethic.

These remedies ignore existing government policies that redistribute wealth from the top to the bottom -- a rather glaring oversight in view of the magnitude of these programs.

To start with, the U.S. tax code is highly progressive. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, “IRS data for 2022 show that the top 1% of filers paid 40.4% of income-tax revenue. The top 10% shouldered 72% of the revenue burden. The bottom half of filers, combined, paid 3%, and that’s an overstatement because it doesn’t account for “refundable” credits.”

So how about those “refundable” credits? If your income is low enough, the IRS will give you a cash refund -- a kind of negative income tax. When you add in “refundable” credits, the bottom half receives more than they pay in........

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