Senator Baucus's version of health care reform would dramatically increase marginal tax rates on ...

the poor. Yes, the poor. As Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw notes, the Congressional Budget Office has issued a report indicating that Baucus's plan will increase the marginal income tax for those whose income is at the "poverty level" to those earning 400% of the poverty level "approximately 22 percentage points." Now, I am not a Harvard economics professor, but I am pretty sure that raising the marginal tax rate on the poor does not make any sense, either economically or politically.

Exit question: is this what most of President Obama's supporters had in mind when they voted for "Hope and Change?"