Bill Bennett: “I think his experience at his cocktail party is one that would be repeated by every one of us if we were to gather…”

“I think his experience at his cocktail party is one that would be repeated by every one of us if we were to gather people of that kind of income in any one of our States. So why don't we all join with the Senator from Delaware? If I may illustrate the reasons with a personal example, not all of the tax returns that are filed and that are in the statistical sample the Senator described represent income to individuals. I do not know the current number. But other numbers have said 75 percent, 80 percent, or some very high figure of percentage of those tax returns that show $400,000 in gross income are, in fact, not income to the individual. Let me give you my personal example to illustrate this. Before I came to the Senate, I was CEO of a company that was an S corporation. In an S corporation, the earnings of the company flow through to the shareholders and are reported on the shareholders' personal tax returns. Therefore, they show up as income to the individual. I was earning $140,000 a year as the CEO of the company.”