"Conceptually the answer in the theory is to suck up the excess money with taxes"

Huh, why is that the answer? Why wouldn't the conceptual answer be "do the opposite", i.e. sop up the excess liquidity by removing money from the money supply, by doing things like raising interest rates, increasing bank reserve ratios, and selling some of the trillions of dollars of securities already on the Fed's balance sheet? The last thing anyone should want is the government to take a lot more in taxes so it can be squandered on foolish projects. Also, once government programs start up and build/lease buildings and hire a bunch of people, they are almost impossible to get rid of (the process of terminating a Federal employee is a Kafkaesque nightmare).