Warren Buffett is just dying to give more of his money to the federal government. Or at least that is what he has written, again, in the op-ed pages of the New York Times. Not only does Buffett want the current marginal income tax rates on the wealthy to rise to just under 40 percent, he also wants a brand-new “minimum tax on high incomes” of 30 percent. Buffett is apparently unaware that the Alternative Minimum Tax (28 percent on incomes above $175,000) was created in 1982 and has been a fiscal and political failure ever since.

Never mind that Buffett and his wealthy liberal friends are perfectly free to write the Treasury Department a check whenever they want. And that Buffett is free to change the legal structure of his own investments to increase his tax liability at any time. Let’s instead focus on the ideal size of government he has suddenly embraced.