It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

Some blunt talk from Sen. Clinton:

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Andrew Sullivan thinks this is "The Essence of Today's Liberalism"

The "we", of course, are the Clintons. They know far better than you do how you should spend your money. Because they are morally better people than you are.

I would call it "the essence of living in a state with a government." I presume Sullivan doesn't oppose in principle taxing citizens to provide for roads or defense. So the question is not so much the idea of whether the state should take things away for the common good (everyone excepting Anarchists and some Libertarians agree that in some cases it should), the question is whether one thinks what the state actually does with the money/resources is good or not. On this, obviously, even well-meaning people can disagree, partisan people can disagree vehemently, and violent people can disagree violently.