Politico, please define "class warfare"

Oh puh-leeze!!! Attacking "special interests" equals "class warfare"?!?!? Dude, Reagan attacked "special interests"!!!(He had an interesting definition of the term, he counted women & minorities as SI) Heck, the term was old when even Reagan used it.

My favorite cartoon on the subject showed an elderly, elegant couple sitting around an outside breakfast with the man, looking at the reader, says "Of course there's no class war. It's over. We won."

Politico is embarrassing. They are all such amateurs that do not even TRY to hide their inside-the-beltway right-leaning provocations. Nor do they hide from the fact that they print headlines to bring links from Tapper, Drudge and Halperin to their site. They are an embarrassment to journalism.

I agree with politico.  It IS class warfare - but now it's the poor going to war against the rich.  And Wall Street and the political elites are just going to have to get used to it.

This is just anotherfocus-group-tested buzzword that the Republitoads use to arouse their base.

You can categorize it with Death Tax, Freedom Fries, Generational Theft and Drill Baby Drill... one more rhetorical jackhammer to befuddle the weak minded.

I find it amusing that those in the upper classes, the people who perpetuate the class hierarchy, are the only ones who ever bellyache about "class warfare."

Higher Taxes: Will The Republicans Cry Wolf Again?

Bruce Bartlett, 02.27.09, 12:01 AM EST

History, hypocrisy and Obama's first budget.

Yesterday, President Obama issued his first detailed budget. Among its most controversial proposals is a significant increase in taxes, especially on those with upper incomes. Obama also proposes a cap-and-trade system to reduce pollution that is in essence a broad-based energy tax.

Republicans will undoubtedly make extravagant claims about the detrimental economic effect of these higher taxes. When one hears these claims, however, it is worth remembering that they said the same things in years past and none of their dire predictions came to pass.

According to a recent Treasury Department study, Ronald Reagan proposed the largest peacetime tax increase in American history as part of a budget deal to get the federal deficit under control. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) of 1982 was signed into law on Sept. 3, and most of its provisions took effect on Jan. 1, 1983.

During debate on TEFRA, many conservatives predicted economic disaster. They argued that raising taxes in the midst of a severe recession was exactly the wrong thing to do. "Every school child knows you don't raise taxes in a recession unless you want to make it worse," The Wall Street Journal's editorial page warned. Said Rep. Newt Gingrich, "I think it will make the economy sicker." The Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. said it had "no doubt that it will curb the economic recovery everyone wants."

Looking at the data, however, it is very hard to see any evidence that TEFRA had a negative effect on growth. Indeed, one could easily make a case that its enactment stimulated growth. As one can see, the economy's growth rates after TEFRA took effect were among the fastest in history.

 

Year/Quarter

Real GDP Growth

1982 III

-1.5%

1982 IV

0.4%

1983 I

5.0%

1983 II

9.3%

1983 III

8.1%

1983 IV

8.4%

1984 I

8.1%

1984 II

7.1%

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

Much More at the LINK below

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/26/obama-budget-reagan-clinton-bush-opinions-columnists_higher_taxes.html

Here's their "class warfare"

Rise and Fall of the Middle Class: 1947-2005http://blog.sustainablemiddleclass.com/?p=393

The website Inequality.org has a summary of income trends among American households from 1947 to 2005. The following two graphs illustrate the rise and fall of the middle class since World War II. The first graph shows income growth according to quintile (20%) groups. Note the lowest 20% of households (far left) had the largest income growth from 1947 to 1979. The richest group represented by the bar on the far right had the lowest income growth, although it was still substantial. It was a time of “lifting all boats.”

The second graph shows the income trends from 1979 to 2005. It’s a much different picture with the richest group seeing the highest income growth. This graph illustrates the supply-side economic theory that has been prominent since Ronald Reagan was president. The “trickle down” economics did not in fact reach the lower wage earning groups. John McCain is a supply-sider. This is the condition he would continue as president. More growth for the rich, stagnation or even wage loss for the lower end.