Let’s linger here a moment: Yes, America, YOU VOTED FOR HIGHER TAXES! During his four-year campaign for re-election, the president never said a word about cutting spending. He still doesn’t plan any, even in the 11th hour of fractious debate over the “fiscal cliff” (USA Today on Thursday: “The president is not seeking any immediate spending cuts”).

But Mr. Obama did say exactly 7,381,964 times that he would raise taxes. Of course, he lied when he said they would strike only millionaires and billionaires (all 245,000 of them — there was never a real plan to balance the books on their backs). Spending cuts out, new “revenue” in — and that’s just what you voted for, America, so shut up and send in your cash.

“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin said. And there is a corollary just as true: Taxes never die, they only go up. But they also inevitably expand to hit the masses. Note how the president quietly changed his class-warfare target from “the 1 percent” to “the 2 percent” he says makes more than $250,000. It won’t be long until the ceiling drops to $200,000, then $150,000. Really, two people making $75,000 each? Have they no shame?