Democrats in the US are jealous that Great Britain got to implement their version of a Buffett Tax first.  By a Buffett Tax I am referring to a surtax on evil rich people.  In the UK, their surtax on the evil rich was implemented last spring.  It pushed tax rates over 50% for high-achievers.  Equally ignorant of how taxes affect behavior, British progressives thought that increasing taxes on the rich would gain them more than £1billion.  Oops!  Hasn’t happened!  The numbers are in and it looks like their soak-the-rich tax is costing them money.   Instead of increased revenues they ended up losing £509 million.

If you want to see how tax increases will affect our economy, just implement Obama’s plan to triple the dividends tax.  That’s not just a tax on the evil rich … though progressives would like you to believe that the only people collecting dividends are fat-cat CEOs … this is a tax that will affect the retirement accounts of teachers, fire fighters, middle class Americans, and all of those evil Americans who made smart decisions, saved, and invested in their future.  For all of you Boomers headed to the polls to vote for Obama in order to protect your Social Security, consider this: “IRS data show that retirees and near-retirees who depend on dividend income would be hit especially hard. Almost three of four dividend payments go to those over the age of 55, and more than half go to those older than 65, according to IRS data.”  This tax increase is something that effect 51% of Americans.

And while we are on the subject of taxes, take a look at James Pethokoukis’ explanation of why Obama’s corporate tax plan is a total bust.  If you think that Obama’s plan would make the US more competitive on a global scale, think again.