All Your Base Are Belong to Us

It’s official — we’ve entered the Age of Newspeak. Check out the headline from a WaPo editorial by Jonathan Gruber:

‘Cadillac’ tax isn’t a tax — it’s a plan to finance real health reform

OK, so maybe a headline writer got carried away. But, no, here are the man’s own words:

But this argument misses an important point: The assessment proposed in the Senate is not a new tax; it is the elimination of an existing tax break that is provided to exactly these firms.

See! It’s not a tax! It’s the “elimination of a tax break.”

To put it more honestly: Everything you earn is the government’s by default, except what it deigns to let you keep.