Lower taxes makes it less expensive for the rich to pay the government.
Look at housing and food costs to see how the middle class are affected, they don't get welfare, social housing, or food stamps.
If you are in between (say) my salary and 400k, no amount of increase in the price of food is going to be a problem for you unless you are ludicrously bad with money. I'm not in favour of wanton taxes aimed at "the rich" as a political manoeuvre, but let's not be blinkered here.
CoL increase maybe not a problem, but its still an increase, if you're trying to tax the rich, you've hit the wrong target.
After a certain rate, as taxes rise, revenue falls. Feds keep spending, when they realize projected income will fall short, the goal line moves from 400K to 200K, then 100K, etc.
We should lower taxes and close the 1000's of loopholes, I would bet revenue goes up.
And I learned a new word today, "wanton"!
That might be true of new taxes/tax increases created by those doing the bidding of the truly wealthy. In fact, it is true.
But that's true of all possible new taxes, and increasing taxes on those with earned income over $400k will have ZERO impact on those who earn less (in terms of their own taxation).
We should put effort into compliance, instead of increases.