Most American voters pay no federal income tax. The twenty per cent of taxpayers that report the highest incomes pay about eighty per cent of the income taxes that the IRS collects. Politicians can't win and hold office by appealing to the people who foot the bill for government. They win by appealing to the people who freeload on the government provided by a small minority of relatively affluent citizens. Our republic has truly become two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
Government shakes down a small group to buy votes from a large one.
Many Republicans are puzzled by polls showing that their fellow Americans haven't been clamoring for tax cuts in this era of projected surplus. The answer is simple - they are, for the most part, people who pay no income taxes. These people don't hang out at the country club but there are millions of them. Republicans who haven't grasped this are in danger of falling into a crippling insularity. For nearly thirty years this statement has been the epitome of political naivete.