Tax Those Who Have It

The timeless script in Washington is a simple one. No thought required.

"Higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for [insert favorite government program here]."

The latest Washington wise man to use this script is Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Bloomberg reports that Senator Levin said “an additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000” a year, could fund more troops...They have done incredibly well, and I think that it’s important that we pay for it if we possibly can."

The Senator's argument makes it sound like the people who earn more than $200,000 are just lucky. They didn't work hard to make that much money, according to the Senator, they just "did well," like a lottery winner or a gambler in Vegas.

If he had been honest about this point, the Senator would have said, "Folks earning more than $200,000 a year have some money coming in, and I think it's important they pay our bills because we can't get money from folks who don't have it."

Of all our natural resources, the first one to be exhausted may be the taxpayer.