Sorry, but what's so mystifying about that? Marxists abhor success in all its forms, economic success in particular, and exceptional American economic success most of all. They care far less for wealth than the power to punish those who create it and take it away from them.
“...giving politicians a big pile of money that will be used to expand the burden of government spending.”
If more money is made available for politicians to spend they will spend it the most important government program ever - their reelection.
Like it or not that is the core of most of the spending inside the beltway. Think differently - take a close look at all of the tax code and count the number of exemptions and special clauses. Then look at who put those items into the tax code and where they got big donations for their reelection runs.
While this effort will keep you busy until the third coming of Christ it will be very illuminating.
BTW - the current administration isn't anything new when it comes to this only the most blatant.
I make this point routinely to my friends and family. All the “tax the rich” chatter is a stalking horse for what they really want, which is to tax the daylights out of everyone. They know good and well that there are not enough rich people to finance their grandiose dreams, and that the real money is within the middle class. But they start with this 1% crap, because it plays well with the envious and lazy. When that doesn’t bring about Nirvana then they will go after the top 2% making $150k or so. Then they’ll ratchet it down, down, down. 100,000; 50,000; 30,000; etc. The way this ends is with anyone caught hoarding two bread crusts instead of one being shot as a class enemy.
“I’m willing to believe Italians live longer, but every other assertion in that passage is upside down.”
They do, but the reason is the same as why the French live longer. They drink red wine, on a regular basis. That’s all it takes.