This morning, the New York Times editorial describes what they call a new resentment of the poor.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
This short note isn't really about resentment, it's about something buried in that editorial: the Republicans want to raise taxes on over 50% of Americans.
According to the editorital, because of low wages and a couple of federal programs to reduce income taxes on low income families (one due to Reagan, one to Obama), a bit less than 50% of Americans now pay federal income tax.
That is a rather amazing fact to me, but, also according to the editorial, it is normally the case that about 30% do not pay, which is also a large number.
To Democrats, this is a good thing because due to current very hard times, over half of Americans would find paying taxes to be a severe hardship. Also to Democrats and to the editors of the NYT, the real target is to fix the economy, thereby raising the income of many or most of the current non-payers so that they do pay income tax. And in the meantime, raise taxes on the wealthy whose tax burden is currently far lighter than it has frequently been in the past.
To Republicans, however, this is the grossest kind of unfairness: everyone with an income, no matter how small, should pay federal income tax. To them, paying taxes will be a good thing for the poor since it will somehow magically give them a stake in the economy (“skin in the game” in their grotesque phraseology).
But here's the one point I wanted to make: Democrats want to raise taxes on the wealthy majority in the name of fairness and to increase revenues. Republicans want to raise taxes on the poor majority (i.e., from zero to something), also in the name of fairness. They don't focus on the increased revenue that would result.
I can't imagine a starker contrast between the parties. It's hallucinatory. We want to increase taxes on those who can best support it, the wealthy and very wealthy. They want to increase taxes on poor people who would literally be returned to poverty (according to the editorial) by it.
I thought I understood “no new taxes” to mean the the GOP would be against any kind of tax increase. A stupid position, but at least somewhat coherent ideologically. But if the facts as portrayed in that editorial are true, and I don't doubt them, then the GOP now stands utterly exposed as one of the worst group of meanies in American history. Imagine calling for a tax increase on the poor while blocking any increase on the rich.