"I think Steyn only sees one side of the story"? Yes, the correct side. National defense is one of very few things that central governments should be responsible for. It is infantile to assume that ten years of war could simply have been avoided without taking enormous (costly) risks. The relationship between tax rates and tax receipts is far more complex than you naively assume. Of course we want the rich to stay rich. Who else is competent to make investment decisions and then to execute their correct implementation thus raising living standards for all? Obama and a bunch of bureaucrats? How are they remotely qualified and where are the free market checks and balances to give them maximum incentive to succeed or to pull the plug quickly should they fail?