Kinsley' Article: He's amusing, that's for sure. But some of his points are too facile, particularly for someone that smart. For example, he says:

The share of total income taxes being paid by the top 1% or 10%, or whatever slice you choose, has been increasing over the past couple of decades. But the point to remember is that the top 1%'s or 10%'s share of total income has been increasing even faster than its share of income taxes. So its slice of the pie has been getting larger, not smaller.

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything, really. (Should we decide which ethnic or geographic groups go to the front lines in war based on who's breeding fastest?) What if the entire federal budget could be balanced by taxing just one fabulously rich guy, so rich that he wouldn't even feel the tax? Would it be fair for him to shoulder the burden? When we set tax rates and deduction categories, this is what we decide. The idea of taxing the one rich guy while exempting anyone who makes less is the same in principle to what we do now. Only the math is different.