You Get Less of What You Tax......

.....and if what you happen to tax is productivity (or you're threatening to), this is what you get.

We've seen before that almost no matter where marginal tax rates are set, receipts to the treasury will not deviate significantly from 19.5% of GDP. If you do something to decrease GDP, such as say, suck money out of the productive economy by raising tax rates, you get less tax receipts. What we are going through right now is an entirely predictable result of simply the threat of higher tax rates on our most productive people. Wait until it actually becomes law.

Wealth envy is no basis for devising a tax system. A progressive income tax is not egalitarian, it's tyrannical

(Via Instapundit)