Often a problem in politics is that people are pretty inelastic when it comes to what they want changed. They want a program fully funded or not funded, a tax issued or no tax at all. A small wealth tax will be seen by foes as a stepping stone to further overreach, and proponents won’t want to fight the same fight again later to get what they feel is owed now.

Your naïveté is not the problem, but rather partisanship means we can’t have nice things.