Can you imagine an American conservative congressman doing this?

[rooboy]

In today's (Monday Morning) Sydney Morning Herald:

Tax the rich and give to the poor - Turnbull does a Robin Hood

The richest man in Parliament wants his Point Piper neighbours to pay more tax - to make room for tax cuts for everybody else.

Malcolm Turnbull, the new Liberal MP for Wentworth worth an estimated $125 million, says the poor are paying too much tax while the rich can avoid it altogether. In his first substantial interview about policy since the federal election, Mr Turnbull has challenged his own government to think boldly and crack down on "the black art" of tax avoidance.

Continuing a transformation from merchant banker to people's representative, he told the Herald: "You hear some people wandering around saying you should have a tax cut at the top and fund it by cutting social welfare. This is a ridiculous sort of proposition."

This was an apparent dismissal of the Coalition's "ginger group" of backbenchers, whose tax and welfare-cutting ideas were prominent earlier in the year. The group will be addressed tonight by Peter Hendy, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mr Turnbull, who has been touted as a future prime minister, has made his views clear in the party room. While his intervention will be welcomed by public policy experts and many taxpayers, it faces a frostier reception from some Liberals.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Tax-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor/2005/03/13/1110649061544.html

[katinmn]

1. We need this.

Unfortunately, even citizens are against it saying it would be political suicide.

Even though it's the right thing to do, our leaders lack the integrity and the support to do it. Exception: Kucinich might, Wellstone probably would have.

[rooboy]

3. The guy who proposed this is one of our biggest entrepreneurs.

He's actually a fairly detestable sort of person, but understands the fundamentals of an economy fall apart if you create a massive underclass. Or to put it another way, he got rich using the system the way it is - why change it?

[porkrind]

2. Taxing the rich as much as the poor?

This guy sounds great. The establishment here would never allow the topic to come up. We are ripe for class warfare, but the establishment propaganda wants us to think we're all middle class and that America is the land of the free.