Now it’s “You Didn’t Earn That?”

Ronald Reagan used to joke that government’s view of the economy can be summed up in three short phrases: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Sorry, I couldn’t resist a little Beltway humor now that another tax season is officially in the books. And comical actions and inefficiency has long been Washington’s most abundant resource.

Which brings us to the topic of the day.

A while back, when the nation’s chief executive lectured small business entrepreneurs with the head-scratching declaration of how they “didn’t build that” I wrote about how my grandfather, armed with a sixth grade education, went on to become machinist so skilled that he developed seven patents for the Navy during World War II.

Now, nearly one year later and packaged as part of his budget proposal is a proposal to cap IRAs at $3 million under its current tax structure, a proposal estimated that would generate $9 billion to the Treasury over the next decade.

Here’s the official statement: “Under current rules, some wealthy individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving.”

Okay, let me translate the veiled reference to “some wealthy individuals.” That would be his 2012 Presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, who disclosed in public filings that his retirement account held between $18.1 million and $87.4 million.

Or enough to give the current cadre of redistributionists hives.

But I’m a bit confused as to who gave the government permission to pass go and determine what a reasonable level of retirement is? Does someone not understand that folks with defined benefit plans are putting THEIR money into it to help sustain a desired level of retirement? So why should someone else weigh on what’s reasonable?

I guess now it’s “you didn’t earn that?”

Now in full disclosure, I’m quite certain that this new proposal, if passed, would not affect me, (unless my quick-pick Powerball numbers hit) but for some reason, it just reeks of overstepping a definitive boundary.

Henny Youngman, the king of the one-liners used to say that his accountant assured him that he had saved enough money to live on comfortably for the rest of his life. That was provided he died by 5 pm that afternoon.

I guess he would be safe as well.