But here are some questions for the Democrats who are so hot on tax increases:
(1) What is the purpose of taxation? Is it to fund necessary government expenditures, or is it to "spread the wealth around" (as the President so memorably put it during the 2008 campaign)?
(2) If it's simply to fund necessary government expenditures, why not raise taxes on everyone? It would raise more revenue, right?
(3) Even if the purpose of taxation is to "spread the wealth around" -- social leveling -- what makes Democrats think government can spend money more efficiently than either private charities, or private consumers who would use the money left to them to buy products or create jobs? In other words, why is it better to pay more taxes so that government can supply more unemployment benefits, rather than letting businessmen and consumers keep their own money and use it to create jobs (or consume goods and services) so that unemployment benefits become less necessary and costly?
(4) Since everyone's talking about "fairness" -- how "fair" is it that a bunch of liberal politicians (many of them elected by voters with minimal tax obligations) can insist that other people pay higher taxes . . . taxes that will never impact them at all?
(5) And finally, down the road, can any government survive when the number of those who pay little or no taxes increases to the point where they can just continually vote for higher taxes on a shrinking group of "the rich"?