Recommended: The Deep-Pockets Mirage

I recommend the editorial The Deep Pockets Mirage, in the July 15, 2009 Washington Post. As others have pointed out, the idea that the rich can somehow pay for all the goodies a Democratic Congress would like is absurd. But politicians keep recycling this myth because it sounds good, plays well to their base, and some of them may even believe it.

But as the editorial points out, we have an even more severe problem looming - the need to eventually pay down the Federal debt we have been building for decades (and expanding precipitously in recent months). And taxing the rich may be needed for that task even more than it is needed for paying for health care.

In any case, taxing the rich never produces as much revenue as politicians claim it will, because the rich, like big corporations, can afford good accountants and tax attorneys and any number of clever schemes, legal and illegal, for avoiding taxes. Only we suckers in the middle class have to pay the taxman the full amount.