Ben Stein calls for tax hikes for the rich

Talking about raising taxes is a tough way to attract votes, no matter what party you're in. But given our federal budget nightmare, conservative Republican Ben Stein is saying that taxes do need to be raised. And remember, this is a guy who wrote speeches for Richard Nixon.

In a column in the Sunday New York Times, Stein delivers a pointed rebuttal to the Laffer-curve inspired voodoo economics that have controlled the Republican Party for decades: the notion that cutting taxes increases economic productivity to the point where tax cuts pay for themselves. If you don't believe me that this hasn't worked, check out the national debt clock.

In a column directed at Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, Stein writes that "The first step toward putting our house in order, once we are past the seemingly looming recession, is much higher taxes on the truly rich and serious enforcement to prevent offshore tax evasion."

Ben Stein is right -- as he usually is. The notion that we should continue sending more than $1 billion a day to pay interest on the federal debt to avoid raising Warren Buffett's tax rate by a few points is nuts.

But here's the political problem: people are optimistic and a lot of people think that they will one day be in that upper tax bracket -- kind of like how 90% of people think they're above average drivers and take risks accordingly. We may be mortgaging our future out of concern that we'll have to pay slightly higher taxes when we are rich.