On Thursday, House Democrats proposed a new bill that would create a minimum 45 percent tax rate on income more than $1 million, and a rate of 49 percent on income more than $1 billion. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is the mastermind behind this notion; she calls it the Fairness in Taxation Act. “Our country faces an inequality crisis,” she said. “While the amount of earned income – and accumulated wealth – by the top one percent of earners continues its dramatic rise, most Americans have seen little or no gain in take-home pay for decades. We need increased revenue to eliminate the sequester.” Other sponsors of the bill include the most liberal members of the Congress: John Conyers (D-MI), Donna Edwards (D-MD), Luis Guttierez (D-IL), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), and John Yarmuth (D-KY).

Of course, the Obama administration rammed through a tax increase at the beginning of 2013, and focused largely on measures designed to redistribute income to low-income earners throughout President Obama’s first term. The result: the weakest and most lopsided recovery in American history. In California, where taxes have been consistently increased for years, more and more businesses and high-income earners are leaving the state for greener pastures.

Our country does not face an inequality crisis. It faces a growth crisis. Cuba has no inequality crisis, but the people are still miserable. The same holds true of most socialized societies, where income gaps are smaller but growth is similarly minute.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).