Did you ever wonder why "census" and "incensed" have the same root? It's because in Latin, "to tax" and "to anger" are the same word: censui.

Note: the dictionary entries are for "censeo" because Perseus shows the first person singular present form.  "Censui" is the infinitive of "censeo".

Yesterday, I wrote about a bill that would treat income differently based on the job description of the person earning it.  A New York Times editorial, bravely posted without a by-line, announced "The Unemployed Held Hostage".  It described this same bill, acting as if a gun was being held to the head of every jobless person in America by those lawmakers who weren't on board with using the tax code to punish this week's unpopular crowd.

Reuters reported yesterday that a bill about to be considered would raise taxes on investment fund managers, by treating some of their investment income like "regular" income.  Will this raise a lot more money in the grand scheme of things?  No.  Why do it?  Politics.  It's a way to look "tough on" Wall Street.

This week the unpopular people are the investment fund managers, so we are going to tax them extra, and not let them eat lunch at the cool kids' table.