Charles Rangel, the Democratic party’s chief tax writer in the House of Representatives, unveiled a new tax plan last week. Its prospects of becoming law this year or next are zero: President George W. Bush will veto any attempt to meddle with his tax cuts. But the plan is worth a look because it is a portent of 2009. Mr Rangel calls his bill “the mother of all tax reforms”. Republicans call it “the mother of all tax hikes”. Even if enacted it would not be, so to speak, the mother of anything. Mr Rangel’s plan is fine as far as it goes, but its ambitions are much too modest.

Its main elements are repeal of the alternative minimum tax (AMT); a new surtax on incomes of more than $150,000; a more generous earned income tax credit for low-paid workers; and a cut in the country’s anomalously high corporate tax rate. The distributional effect of the income-tax changes in 2008 would be somewhat higher taxes for those on very high incomes (more than $500,000 a year), and slightly lower taxes for everybody else (with those on incomes of between $200,000 and $500,000 doing best). This is not exactly raving socialism.