The (sadly, only recent) interest in the national debt has prompted some on the left to begin laying the foundation for future tax increases. Even Janet Yellen, who while she served as Fed chair under President Obama couldn’t be bothered with the level of federal deficits, has suggested that it may well be time to have a national debate about our debts.

Of course, the best way to win a debate is to control the language used in it. And, true to form — just as they did with “choice” and “gender affirming care” — the left has been quick to offer self-serving definitions for certain critical terms.

One of those terms is “taxes,” or more specifically, “effective tax rates.”

A recent piece in the New York Times drove that home, and in so doing exposed just how difficult it is going to be to have a meaningful adult conversation about our fiscal situation.

Using language that has become standard for the progressive left, the column opined that “[f]or the first time in the history of the United States, billionaires had a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.”

As is so often — and too often — the case in political dialogue in this country, that........

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