GOP’s 'One Percenter' attack on Hillary Clinton comically backfires

In 2008, the campaign of multi-millionaire John McCain tried to brand Barack Obama as "elitist" and "out of touch" and "worried about the price of arugula." Four years later, Mitt Romney—the GOP presidential nominee worth at least a quarter of a billion dollars—declared that President Obama "reminded me of Marie Antoinette." Now, Politico tells us, the GOP is planning to "turn Hillary into Mitt Romney":

Republicans are readying a familiar template: The out-of-touch plutocrat who lives in a world of private planes, chauffeured vehicles and million-dollar homes.

But the Republicans' pathetic populist ploy is backfiring. After all, the now-wealthy Clintons have long supported policies to help working Americans. And while Hillary Clinton has put her money where her mouth is by backing increases in the taxes her family pays, the GOP and its 2016 candidates are—as always—calling for a massive, Treasury draining, tax cut windfall for the wealthy.

Capitals Gains Taxes. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton explained what Republican control of the White House would mean for Americans' tax bills. "They'll hurt the middle class and the poor and put the future on hold to give tax cuts to upper-income people who've been getting it all along."

Four years later, the GOP's declared candidates are once again proving him right. Both Rand Paul and Marco Rubio would repeal the estates and gift taxes, while reducing the rate on capital gains and dividend income to zero.

Low capital gains tax rates have been one of the biggest drivers of income inequality. In 2011, the Washington Post explained why. READ MORE