I definitely agree that a government could simply blow it. And in some respects, raising taxes may amount to just throwing money at a problem: without plans or

I definitely agree that a government could simply blow it. And in some respects, raising taxes may amount to just throwing money at a problem: without plans or government workers to back up the money, there's no guarantee anything will come from it. You could certainly argue that the first problem to solve is not where the money comes from, or the amount of money, but rather how it is spent (and ensuring every penny is spent responsibly). The whole tax question would go away if we discovered that the government can actually do the same job with half the money it had been using.