Cap gains redux

Over at the Tax Policy Center blog, Eric Toder has a nice post noting that

• Today's capital gains tax rate of 15% is almost surely far below the rate that prevails at the peak of the long-run Laffer curve
• Charlie Gibson's premise in his question for Barack Obama in ABC's much-maligned April 16 debate was just bogus. Toder writes:
  

In his question to Obama, Gibson also claimed that 100 million shareholders would be affected by a hike in the capital gain rate. But most of these shareholders hold assets in 401k plans, which are not subject to capital gains tax. In 2005, less than 14 million taxpayers realized taxable capital gains. And the vast majority of these gains are realized by very wealthy individuals—almost 60 percent by individuals with income over $1,000,000.