That picture over there goes a long way toward explaining ongoing support among the public, including a majority of Republicans, for income equality.
Here's even more evidence for that, in the form of a Bloomberg/Washington Post poll.
More than two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say wealthier people should pay more in taxes to bring down the budget deficit, and even larger numbers think Medicare and Social Security benefits should be left alone.[...]
More than 8 out of 10 Americans say the middle class will have to make financial sacrifices to cut the federal deficit even as the public just as strongly opposes higher taxes on middle-income families, according to a Bloomberg-Washington Post national poll conducted Oct. 6-9.
“While Americans see sacrifice as inevitable for the middle-class, the only sacrifice to win majority support is a tax on those too wealthy to be considered middle-class,” says J. Ann Selzer, president of Des Moines, Iowa-based Selzer & Co., which consults with Bloomberg News on polls.
Here are those numbers:
This all just reinforces Stan Greenberg's warning to the ConservaDems on opposing the Democratic jobs bill, which includes raising taxes on the wealthy. There is nothing for any Democrat to lose electorally by a united Democratic stance for jobs, for tax fairness, for protecting social insurance programs. Nothing, except maybe some campaign donations from their friends in the one percent.