Taxes, taxes, taxes.(Charles Rangel's tax plan)

SEVERAL Democratic candidates in the current presidential-election season and the last one have informed voters that the world's problems can be solved if only we would repeal the Bush tax cuts. Ever mindful of the median voter, some, like Hillary Clinton, have been careful to add that only the tax cuts for the rich should be reversed.

The candidates have likely adopted this strategy, rather than one that calls for larger tax hikes, because voters remember the 1990s as generally prosperous times. How much damage could it really do to bring rates back to where they were when Bill Clinton was in the White House?

This approach, however, is extremely deceptive. One simply cannot raise enough revenue to fulfill all of the Democrats' spending fantasies just by reversing the Bush tax cuts on the rich.

This became vividly apparent in late October, when House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel released his tax plan. The main thrust of Rangel's plan is a repeal of the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax. Wary of losing all of the revenue that the AMT is forecasted to raise over the next decade, Rangel increases tax rates on the rich to offset the AMT's elimination.

Since Rangel's tax hikes are focused on the rich, and ...