If we're going to have trickle-up economics, where money inevitably ends up in the hands of the richest among us because large amounts of capital in one place seem to exert an almost gravitational pull, then I think it makes sense to use the government and its powers of taxation as a countervailing force by taking money from the rich and either pulling it out of circulation permanently or redistributing it to the working class, who will in turn spend it on goods and services so that this money eventually finds its way back to the rich.

The problem is Congress. If we increase taxes, will Congress use the money on the debt? (Arguably that would also fight inflation.) Or would they just spend the money on more programs? That won't do anything about the debt, and it also won't do anything about inflation (because the same amount of money is being spent, the only thing that changed is who has it to spend).

Well, knowing Congress, which do you think they're going to do?

I suppose that kind of cynicism means that Congress can never do anything to help with the debt, or to help with inflation. But, frankly, I don't trust them to do the right thing with a big new pot of money.

> Well, knowing Congress, which do you think they're going to do?

Your position requires assuming Congress would not spend money if it wanted to but it required increasing deficits, and we know from history (recent and otherwise) that that is not a practical constraint, so...

Fair point. But I worry that, if they didn't have the pressure about increasing the deficit, they'd spend even more...