3.It isn’t even“spreading the wealth around,” as then-senator Obama put it in anunfortunate off-the-prompter moment during the 2008 campaign. Rather,it’s an assault on the moral legitimacy of the system. If you acceptthe principle of a tax on income, it might seem reasonable to excludethe very poor from having to contribute to it. But in no meaningfulsense of the term can half the country be considered “poor.” UnitedStates income tax is becoming the 21st-century equivalent of the“jizya” — the punitive tax levied by Muslim states on their non-Muslimcitizens: In return for funding the Islamic imperium, the infidels werepermitted to carry on practicing their faith. Likewise, under theAmerican jizya, in return for funding Big Government, the non-believersare permitted to carry on practicing their faith in capitalism, smallbusiness, economic activity, and the other primitive belief systems towhich they cling so touchingly.