I couldn’t agree with Krugman’s comments more.  There is absolutely no question that the policies of the Republican party are constantly geared to the wealthiest.  They refer to the wealthiest as “job creators” and they’ve actually referred to them as “the most productive members of our society” many times because they’re trying to call them everything but wealthy people.  Republicans accuse Democrats of engaging in class warfare when they talk about increasing taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Americans, but they then turn around and actively parrot the talking point that half of American’s aren’t pulling their weight because they’re freeloading slackers without personal responsibility.

And that’s not a new line – Republicans have been talking about this for a long time … after all – “broaden the base, lower the taxes” IS the Republican party message.  And the only possible solution with that kind of economic policy vision is to increase taxes on the lower and middle incomes while lowering taxes on the rich.  The Republican party treats union members with disdain … those communists that are teachers, policemen and firefighters … Republicans hold animosity to them.  Even while corporate profits are at an all time high – the GOP just doesn’t care about some of those gains going to the middle class worker … it just doesn’t process as part of their priority process.

Krugman writes HERE:

It’s deeply embedded in the party’s policy priorities. Mr. Romney’s remarks spoke to a widespread belief on the right that taxes on working Americans are, if anything, too low. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal famously described low-income workers whose wages fall below the income-tax threshold as “lucky duckies.”

What really needs cutting, the right believes, are taxes on corporate profits, capital gains, dividends, and very high salaries — that is, taxes that fall on investors and executives, not ordinary workers. This despite the fact that people who derive their income from investments, not wages — people like, say, Willard Mitt Romney — already pay remarkably little in taxes.

Where does this disdain for workers come from? Some of it, obviously, reflects the influence of money in politics: big-money donors, like the ones Mr. Romney was speaking to when he went off on half the nation, don’t live paycheck to paycheck. But it also reflects the extent to which the G.O.P. has been taken over by an Ayn Rand-type vision of society, in which a handful of heroic businessmen are responsible for all economic good, while the rest of us are just along for the ride.

And I’ve always found it offensive that Republicans have actively campaigned to cut taxes on capital gains to zero despite the fact that is how most of the ultra wealthy make their money.  Very few in the “middle class” actually have capital gains outside of their home which is already exempt if you live in your home for 2 years.  So – focusing specifically on cutting taxes on dividends and capital gains would be a huge benefit worth hundreds of billions in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.  But that’s the Republican party vision for America.

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