[Gaffer]

You forget the everlasting tenet of liberalism - incrementalism. It won't come in one fell swoop. It will hit someone not connected to the common person - first. Starting with those accounts of well-off people - they call them 'rich'....I'm telling you this is going to happen. What you do with it is your business. Nevertheless, it is inevitable. Senator Tom Harkin recently held a Recess Hearing on this very subject. They have to make UNION and municipal/teacher pensions solvent or lose their campaign booty and avid (I say RABID) undying support, even the face of the boldest lies.

[andy58-in-nh]

Incrementalism is the usual method, but in this case the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause (as well as the “takings” clause of the Fifth) would make it impossible: you cannot have the government seize control of private assets, especially not from one indistinct group owing solely to a changeable, annual income level. Legal challenges would come from all directions (as they are even now with the health care nightmare). And still, as I suggested before, those who can do so will take their money out of the market and hide it elsewhere.