It's a favorite obsession of conservatives to refer to taxation as a "punishment" or "demonization" of the wealthy. Here's Andrew Sullivan: "the more you succeed, the more they will punish you." Or Lisa Schiffren: "[N]ow the president, who followed a path sort of like that, and who claims that his wife's former six-figure income was a result of precisely such qualifications and efforts, is demonizing [people who earn more than $250,000]." As Schiffren points out, the Obamas will likely be affected by the new administration's tax plan, as will many of the other people in government supporting it. Do conservatives, I wonder, really believe that the administration is really demonizing and punishing ... themselves? As though taxation was some kind of moral judgment. These are also the same people who would be infuriated if the Left accused them of "punishing" or "demonizing" the poor when they support policies that exacerbate income inequality and social mobility. Sullivan, in particular, believes that this is a time for reasoned dialogue among political opponents, so maybe it's time to set aside inflammatory and inaccurate rhetoric. The tax increases are mild. Even David Brooks concedes that adjusting tax rates is "what the budget does. It’s not the Russian Revolution." Meanwhile, the super-wealthy pay a 17.7 percent tax rate while the merely wealthy will pay in the mid-to-high thirty percent. That's because we distinguish between investment income and the income from work. Does it count as "demonization" to question the merits of that distinction? Now I'm off to get a cup of coffee. No doubt I will be punished with a bill for my coffee, yet another step in the corner market's campaign to demonize coffee drinkers.
-- Tim Fernholz
