Here is liberalism unvarnished and unrestrained: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, says his proposal for a 50 percent tax on the wealthiest of the British people is a figure he simply plucked out of the air.

Imagine that. The chancellor said, “There is no science behind it. It’s simply my judgment that I thought that figure was an appropriate one.”

Why not 55 percent, then, or 60 percent, or even 100 percent? Take it all. Isn’t that how liberal governments regard our money? They see what we earn as something that belongs to government and government will decide how much of our earnings it will allow us to keep. Instead, we should be telling government how much of our money we will allow them to spend.

Governments establish budgets and then promptly exceed them. If taxpayers protest, they are greedy and self-centered and do not care for the unfortunate among us. We do, indeed, care for the unfortunate, but the difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals want to send the unfortunate a check and conservatives want to help the unfortunates earn their own check.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.