Obama keeps saying that we can “fix” our fiscal problems by “asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a bit more.” That is sheer nonsense, since we couldn’t fix our looming fiscal disaster even if we levied a 100 percent tax rate on every taxpayer.
Nevertheless, neocons have indicated their willingness to cave in and let Obama have his tax increases — Bill Kristol in particular. In this Cato@Liberty post, Marian Tupy explains exactly what is wrong with Kristol’s thinking, namely that if Washington gets its hands on still more wealth, it will waste it and then claim the need for still more taxes.