Robin Hood and Joe the Plumber...

The now famous "Joe the Plumber", whose off-the-cuff questioning of Sen. Obama exposed the redistribution of wealth... I mean "spread the wealth around" plans of the Democrats was mentioned more times in last night's debate than... well... pie. Watching the agonizing Bob Beckell on FoxNews two things came up. First off, his justification is that we've always had a progressive income tax ever since we had an income tax. That's right Bob. And it's always been couched in this socialist "fairness" mindset. The very same mindset that brought us Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the current economic donkey-punching they caused.

Just because we've "always" had something doesn't make it right. I believe having "In God we Trust" ("always" meaning since the 1850s) on the money is wrong. I believe the addition of "... under God" to the National Anthem ("always" meaning since the 1950s) was wrong. And I believe the "soak the rich/fairness" income tax policy is wrong. And, by way of full disclosure, I'm not rich so it doesn't directly (the key word being directly) effect me. But it does affect me, it effects everyone, and that's the bloody point.

The second bit was the mentioning of a "Robin Hood" philosophy. Every time I hear this it makes my head hurt. Robin Hood, contrary to the old saying, did not rob from the rich and give to the poor. He robbed from the tax collector and gave it back to the people. Robin Hood wasn't a Socialist. He was a Libertarian.