Awesome Take-down of Mauled Again

From the Tax Lawyer's Blog:

After reading Mr. Maule’s post, it is simply impossible to arrive at any conclusion other than that he believes that only an ignorant or maliciously motivated person could possibly be opposed to higher taxes on rich people. Of course that’s utter balderdash because there are myriad wise and benignly motivated reasons to oppose high taxes on the rich and the inevitable expansion of government that comes with them. For example, I am opposed to high taxes and the expansion of the federal government at the expense of private enterprise for the following reasons:

• Government has proven to be inefficient and, therefore, I don’t trust the bureaucracy to use my money wisely.
• Giving too much power to government is anti-constitutional and poses a threat to freedom.
• Government already wastes a substantial portion of the tax revenue it receives from the public. It is reasonable to demand that the government responsibly and wisely use the money we’ve already given it before it asks us to give it more.
• Government expansions tend to be permanent, it being politically impossible after the crisis du jour is solved to shrink it back down to its former size.
• The free market, as imperfect as it is, will circulate wealth in a more efficient and ultimately more just way than the federal government will circulate it.
• The clamoring for higher taxes on successful people is a cop out to avoid doing the hard work of cost cutting and a power grab by those who want to remove choice from individuals and give it to an intellectual elite that thinks it knows better than they do what is good for them.

Supporters of higher taxes and bigger government may disagree with my reasons for favoring lower taxes and smaller government, but when they suggest that those reasons are the product of my ignorance or the result of my exploitation by rich oligarchs, they’ve lunged from the world of reasoned debate into the abyss of pejorative and character assassination. It is unlikely they’ll convince anyone of anything from there.