More than 20 years ago I traveled with a delegation from the American Farm Bureau to assess China’s agricultural production.  China was about to enter the world market but little was known about rural China and even if the nation would be a net importer or exporter of agricultural products.

We had been encouraged to refrain from discussions about socialism, capitalism, personal freedom and similar topics with our hosts.  But while in Beijing we asked why most citizens on the street were riding bicycles and a few were in chauffer-driven limousines.  We finally got our hosts to agree that some people are more equal than others.

Which brings me to New York Representative Jerrold Nadler who happens to support higher taxes but wants to protect the citizens of his high income state.  His solution is to have the IRS adjust tax brackets in areas where the average cost of living is higher than the national average.

Nadler’s bill, called the Tax Equity Act would codify the concept that some people are more equal than others.  For example a family with the same earnings in Manhattan would pay less federal income tax than the same family in, say, Spokane or Yakima or Olympia.

One of the reasons taxes run higher in New York has to do a lot with the local and state tax burden, union work rules, and heavy business regulation that make it more expensive to produce, sell and buy things.

A more accurate title for his proposal is the Blue State Tax Preference Act.