Scott Sumner, from the comments

This is on “The People’s Budget“:

Matt Yglesias has a much better solution for progressives; a progressive consumption tax.

This capital gains proposal is especially silly. I’m 99% sure they won’t allow unlimited write-offs of capital losses, which means the effective cap gains rate would be even higher, and risk-taking would be discouraged. And why even have a corporate income tax system? Even from a progressive perspective it makes no sense at all.

This proposal taxes rich guys who live a hedonistic lifestyle at a much lower rates than equally rich guys who are thrifty, and leave something for others. That’s progressive?

A progressive consumption tax system composed of a mixture of modestly progressive VAT and steeply progressive payroll taxes and carbon taxes and land taxes. That’s all you need. K.I.S.S.