When in doubt, soak the rich. It seems obvious because, after all, there are votes in it, right?
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Labor is reportedly flirting with the idea of imposing a tax floor in a system that is more often known for its tax flaws.
Clever, creative accountants and crafty tax lawyers, look out. Clients earning above the $300,000-a-year-mark would face a minimum bill of say, 35 per cent. That's a hefty margin-sapping slug - like $105 grand annually.
Mind you, upper middle-income-earners are being hit like this every single year, percentage-wise, so it is not so onerous. And besides, that's its attraction: both fiscally and politically.
The budget is short on funds and long on resentment as the rich minimise their declared income to avoid paying their fair share.
And those schmucks who cannot fiddle their particulars pay extra, only to be dudded with deteriorating services, a failing safety net and endless lectures about living within their means.
Meanwhile, the budget stays determinedly in the red anyway.
So, a Buffett rule - a mandated minimum tax bill for the super-rich makes both sense and cents. Plenty of them potentially. Good policy even.
But the fiscal repair benefits should not be over-stated. Even with their tricks, wealthier taxpayers already carry a heavy burden of personal tax revenue. And the design of such rules is extremely problematic because fairly distinguishing legitimate work expenses - say the cost of a ute - from those that are not, is anything but straightforward.
For small businesses, sole traders, this is critical.
Should Labor embrace the idea, it will win plaudits but put at risk its hard-won reputation as pro-aspirational, pro-wealth accumulation, pro-business.
Sure as eggs, the government will tag the move as creeping socialism, and of course, as typical of a party that never sees a problem that cannot be fixed with more taxes.
And if Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is captive to his conservative right wing, Labor leader Bill Shorten increasingly appears vulnerable to the charge of being in thrall to the left.
Whether it be climate policy - where he is struggling to reassure voters that his 50 per cent renewable commitment is affordable, or other policies, a gathering Coalition narrative paints Shorten as a populist, every bit as desperate to neutralise his green-left flank as Turnbull is to manage One Nation and the Nats on his right.
Meanwhile the middle gets thinner.
