Very Scary

In a typically uncritical "news report" Reuters says that John Edwards, in trying to outdo his Democratic rivals has proposed a big tax increase in order to get more money for his healthcare schemes. Particularly chilling:

"Finally we need to do a much better job of collecting the taxes that are already owed," he said, specifically targeting what he said are large amounts of unpaid capital gains taxes.

"We should have brokerage houses report the capital gains that people are incurring because we're losing billions and billions of dollars in tax revenue," Edwards said.

I seriously doubt he means unpaid realized capital gains. What he's probably looking to tax is unrealized capital gains. That's not the same as interest. When you put your money in a bank, the bank pays you interest. You actually see that cash every year. If you purchase a home or stock certificate and the value of that object goes up, that's an unrealized capital gain. You don't see the greater value in cash until you sell the object. Can you imagine paying income taxes on your house every year because the value is going up? I shudder at what that would do to people's retirement funds. I bet Edwards is glad he has his millions and really begrudges the little people actually earning some money in their lifetimes.