'Obama Robin Hood'

From Ryan Donmoyer and Aliza Marcus at Bloomberg:
President Barack Obama is proposing the first tax increase on high-income earners in 16 years to help pay for sweeping health-care reforms, asking the U.S. Congress to cap the tax deductions for affluent Americans.
The move would reverse a course set by former President George W. Bush of lowering taxes for high-income people, the cornerstone of his administration’s economic program.
“It’s a clear repudiation of Bush’s policy,” said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland in College Park. “It’s more Obama Robin Hood.” . . .
Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 Republican leader in the House, said Obama can expect a wall of opposition to his proposed tax increase. Roughly half of Americans earning $250,000 are small-business owners, and the proposed increase will stifle the troubled economy, he said.
“There will be overwhelming opposition from the American people and House Republicans to the idea that we should raise taxes during a recession,” Pence said in an interview. “Raising taxes in a recession is not a strategy for recovery.”
Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, said in an e-mail, “You cannot help the job seeker by punishing the job creator. This is exactly the wrong time to be raising taxes on anyone, not the least of which are our small businesses that create new jobs in America.”
The administration also proposes in its budget plan to use revenue from the sale of greenhouse-gas emission permits to help finance a tax credit for some workers and offset higher energy costs for low- and middle-income people.
"Soak the rich" always sounds appealing at first blush.
But the closer you look the worse this idea gets.
Still, I'm sure Obama & Co. will not be disuaded.
And no one should be surprised that Dear Leader is moving in this direction.