If you're rich and think nobody loves you anymore, meet Rep. John Boehner. He's the House minority leader from Ohio anchoring the opposition to President Barack Obama's proposed tax hikes on households making more than $250,000 a year.

Although my family falls into that category, I never asked Boehner to take up our cause. The idea of paying higher taxes doesn't make me want to turn cartwheels, but I understand why it's necessary. The math is pretty basic.

One of the richest men on the planet, Warren Buffett, says he's cool with Obama's tax plan, even though it would personally cost him millions of dollars — which he can afford.

We may safely assume that Buffett doesn't require, or want, any politicians out crusading on his behalf. Yet most rich people aren't as famous or influential as the iconic Omaha investor, and some of them are glad to have a friend in John Boehner.

And he's one friendly dude, if you've got money. Corporate lobbyists adore the man, and the feeling is mutual. Boehner is well known for letting private interests fly him all over the place on golf excursions disguised as speaking gigs — to Pebble Beach in California, Greenbriar in West Virginia, St. Andrews in Scotland.

"Yes, I am cozy with lobbyists," he once told The Washington Post, while proclaiming that his ethics were unassailable and his true loyalties lay with ordinary Americans.

Watching Boehner at his news conferences, you'd never guess he was such a social butterfly. His delivery is so dull that he makes Bob Dole look like Jim Carrey.

Yet, according to Boehner's hometown newspaper, one of the hottest bashes at Republican conventions is the "Boehner party," which is held nightly until the early hours by lobbyists schmoozing the congressman.

Never having invited Boehner on a Scottish golf vacation, or thrown a party for him, or mailed him a nickel in campaign donations, I suppose I should be grateful that he's taken such an avid interest in my tax situation.

But here's the deal. If government is serious about rebooting the economy, reforming healthcare and improving public education, everybody's going to pay for it — just like we're paying for this brilliant, trillion-dollar adventure in Iraq.

The difference is that the money spent here at home will have a measurable impact on American children, college students, seniors, veterans, working families and businesses.

As a taxpayer, I've got no problem with that. It makes more sense than starting a faraway war on a whim.

Under Obama's plan, the Bush tax cuts that benefited the wealthy would be allowed to expire in a year or so, while couples earning less than $250,000 annually would receive an immediate reduction in their tax rates.

That means the vast majority of Americans would actually see their income taxes go down. My mother, for example, would pay less than she does now, which would be a good thing.

Under another of the president's proposals, some of the itemized deductions that I take on my tax returns would be pared in order to raise revenues for health care, and make the law more equitable. As it stands now, it's stacked in my favor. If Mom and I each donated $100 to the United Way, I'd get a better tax break for the contribution just because I'm in a higher bracket. The same is true for mortgage-interest deductions.

If Obama's revisions should pass, it won't mean that every tax dollar raised will be spent carefully and efficiently.

Yet what good things the government can and must try to do require lots of money, and it has to come from somewhere. For those who are in better shape to take a hit than our parents or our kids, this is a no-brainer.

You'd never know from listening to Boehner, but lots of people with money are willing to write the IRS a bigger check if it means easier times for folks we know who are struggling.

Boehner says any tax hike would be terrible for the economy, but not a soul at the top of those lofty brackets intends to stop spending their dough if the law changes.

And that includes the congressman's golf buddies.

Carl Hiaasen is a columnist for the Miami Herald.