Don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax the guy behind that tree

I’ve always hated the facile argument that we should simply “raise taxes on the rich” to pay for [fill in the blank]. First of all, it’s like punishing people for working hard and saving responsibly. Second, it’s the height of political cowardice and expediency to disproportionately burden a small constituency for the benefit of a larger one (in other words, robbing Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul).

Today Senator Jon Kyl convincingly argues against the politically popular position of socking the “rich” in “We can’t tax our way out of the Social Security crisis” by raising either payroll taxes or the cap on taxable income. And for good measure, check out this older “Ant & the Grasshopper” post on the Safety Valve (come back, Toren!).