I will make it short because I already blogged about this at:

https://sixvirtues.com/2010/09/25/democrats-and-tax-cuts-for-the-rich/

Below is the link for Tim Noah’s CBS Sunday Morning video on “The Great Divergence.” This is the term Paul Krugman gave to the period between 1980 and 2005, when 80% of income growth went to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6987376n&tag=cbsnewsVideoArea.0

Tim Noah’s Crap — Democrats don’t talk about “The Great Divergence” because they don’t want to “sound like left-wing class warriors.”

Cut the Crap — Democrats don’t talk about “The Great Divergence” because the wealthiest segment of the population funds the campaigns of Republicans and Democrats.

If you don’t like my cynicism, Fareed Zakaria provided this description of American politics in TIME magazine (November 1, 2010, p. 35):

The American tax code is a monstrosity, cumbersome and inefficient. It is 16,000 pages long and riddled with exemptions and loopholes, specific favors to special interests. As such, it represents the deep, institutionalized corruption at the heart of the American political process, in which it is now considered routine to buy a member of Congress’s support for a particular, narrow provision that will be advantageous for your business.

Five years from now Barack Obama will write a book about why we could not have “Change We Can Believe In.” By that time it may be too late. The Supreme Court may have already sealed our fate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html