"DovBear" on Income Redistribution: November 09, 2006

DovBear:

According to the AP, over the last 12 years the Republican congress not only shifted spending from Democratic congressional districts to Republican ones, but also, and more significantly, they shifted spending from low-income people to upper-income people:

Slate:

What the AP is describing, then, appears to represent not only a spending shift from Democratic congressional districts to Republican ones, but also, and more significant, a spending shift from low-income people to middle- and upper-income people.

DB:

In other words, while Democrats want to redistribute income downward, to the poor, Republicans want to redistribute it upward, to the rich. This impulse is particularly offensive when you consider that even before the Republicans recaptured the House in 1996, entitlement spending tended (improbable as it sounds) to favor the wealthy.

Slate:

The GOP, it seems, is every bit as bent as the Democrats on redistributing income; the only difference is that while Democrats want to redistribute income downward, to the poor, Republicans want to redistribute it upward, to the rich. This impulse is particularly offensive when you consider that even before the Republicans recaptured the House, entitlement spending tended (improbable as it sounds) to favor the wealthy.

DB:

Here is how Neil Howe and Phillip Longman put it in a 1992 article for the Atlantic Monthly (their source was the Congressional Budget Office):

Slate:

Here is how Neil Howe and Phillip Longman put it in a 1992 article for the Atlantic Monthly (their source was the Congressional Budget Office):

DB:

Here's William Jennings Bryan in 1896: 'Who is it most needs a navy?' Is it the farmer who plods along behind the plow upon his farm, or is it the man whose property is situated in some great seaport where it could be reached by an enemy's guns?'"

Slate:

Rep. William Jennings Bryan cited the greater benefit government bestowed on the wealthy as a reason to make the tax progressive. "Who is it most needs a navy?" Bryan said. "Is it the farmer who plods along behind the plow upon his farm, or is it the man whose property is situated in some great seaport where it could be reached by an enemy's guns?"

Screenshot of original post here.