" Wondering what your theory is on how raising the rates on those making over a million a year will affect the average retiree? "

Are you really wondering? Did you give the question much thought at all? What if I offered you $1,000,000 to think of how raising the capital gains tax on rich people would affect investors who are not rich (or retirement funds that aren't taxed on capital gains as such)? I'll bet you could do it.

You'd go back to Econ 101 and think about supply and demand. You'd dope out how much demand for equities is attributable to people who will be making $1,000,000 per year when they sell their stocks. When those people stop buying stocks, because the tax on liquidation is too high, what happens to the value of shares held by others?

Then you'd do some dynamic analysis. With less bang for equities, the wealthy will buy more debt, because it's safer and the tax benefit of taking the equity risk has been removed. Less wealthy, risk-averse investors already buy debt. More demand for debt lowers the return on debt. That's bad for retirees.

And then there's the overall effect on capital formation and wages, which will both fall if equity investments aren't attractive. That's pretty speculative, but we've had a long history of trying to set the capital gains rate where investment capital remains available but also mobile. Raising the capital gains rate significantly on the rich will upset that balance.

The way to tax the rich is through death taxes that break up dynastic wealth, which is both corrupting and inefficient. But the capital gains rate is part of a surprisingly delicate Rube Goldberg machine, and we fiddle with it at our peril.