As it turns out, the Clintons have now released 38 years of tax returns going back to Bill's first campaigns in Arkansas. And the contrast with the GOP's last presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, is quite stark. Romney released just two years of returns. Mitt, whose fortune was valued a quarter-billion dollars back in 2008, summed up his last decade of payment to Uncle Sam this way four years ago:

"Every year, I've paid at least 13 percent, and if you add, in addition, the amount that goes to charity, why the number gets well above 20 percent."

Remember, too, that Romney and every one of the 2016 Republican candidates would dramatically cut the Clintons' tax bill. One person who wouldn't is Hillary Clinton herself. While the GOP field promises to slash the top income tax rates, eliminate the estate tax and even (like Marco Rubio) end capital gains and dividend taxes, Clinton would increase them all. In addition to supporting the "Buffett Rule" ensuring that those earning over a million dollars a year, Secretary Clinton has called for a 4 percent tax surcharge on all income (not just from salaries and wages) over $5 million a year. Candidate Hillary Clinton, it is clear, is determined to raise President Hillary Clinton's tax bill to the IRS.

Now, you can argue that Hillary's practice of extracting large sums of cash from the financial sector is indefensible. (At best, as Paul Waldman suggests, Hillary could make the boastful claim that "I'm worth it.) But if nothing else, she might start by borrowing from Bill's script. As he put it in 2004:

"You might remember that when I was in office, on occasion, the Republicans were kind of mean to me. But soon as I got out and made money, I began part of the most important group in the world to them. It was amazing. I never thought I'd be so well cared for by the president and the Republicans in Congress. I almost sent them a thank-you note for my tax cuts - until I realized that the rest of you were paying for the bill for it, and then I thought better of it."

Now as then, the Clintons will take more from their ol’ coffers to refill Uncle Sam’s. As her tax proposals show, Hillary Clinton is willing to put her money where her mouth is.

UPDATE: Judging by many of the comments, it seems clear that the diary did not provide enough detail to highlight the myriad ways in which Hillary Clinton would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, including herself. In addition to the 4 percent surcharge on incomes over $5 million a year, the Buffett Rule she supports requires those earning above $1 million a year to pay at least 30 percent to Uncle Sam. Like Bernie Sanders, Clinton has long supported ending the “carried interest exemption” that allows hedge fund managers and private equity investors (like Mitt Romney) to pay the much lower capitals gains rate (20 percent) rather than the income tax rate (as high as 39.6 percent) on their annual earnings. Just as important for those on Wall Street, Hillary would change the treatment of capital gains, where still-low tax rates are one of the biggest factors behind America’s record-high levels of income inequality. For individuals earning over $411,500 a year ($464,850 for families), capital gains on investment income would be taxed at the same rate as earned income (39.6 percent). For this top 0.5 percent of taxpayers, rates would decline each year, until reaching 20 percent for investments held six years or longer.