It's not far off. The US deficit in 2010 was $1.42 trillion, while discretionary spending was $1.36 trillion [1]. The total household income in 2006 was ~$7 trillion [2], of which the top 1% ("rich") make over 20%, which would be around $1.4 trillion in 2006. Presumably the number is lower in 2010. Additionally, we couldn't really take 100% of that money in taxes, because they are already being taxed at 40% or so. It's not clear to me how to calculate total corporation income, but the deficit is about 10% of the GDP, so it's probably not true.
As far as I can tell, none of these numbers are exceptional (percentage-wise) compared to other countries.
As far as I can tell, none of these numbers are exceptional (percentage-wise) compared to other countries.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budg...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_... - mean income*number of households
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/06/us-income-gap-rich-...
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_pub...