Class Warfare: How The GOP Became A Party For The Rich

I have a special practice. I handle one client.

Tom Hagen, of The Godfather, referring to his sole client and boss, Don Corleon.

The state of the Republican party brings to mind the fictional law practice of Tom Hagen (the Godfather's personal attorney) because similarly the GOP has one client - the super rich 1%.

For the last 30 years they have created laws, tax codes, tax breaks, corporate subsidies and favorable corporate deregulation policies that has exclusively benefited that one client - much to the detriment of the middle and working class population.

Economically speaking, everyone else (the 99%) gets the cold shoulder or yet worse, gets screwed.

Although the GOP brand has always been pro-business, they once had a more comprehensive client list. So it raises the questions, when and how did the GOP adopt the (compliments to Tom Dickson) One Percent Doctrine?

Well, Tom Dickson in a very intriguing article in Rolling Stones, titled How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich, details the metamorphosis of the GOP.

Here's an excerpt:

Modern-day Republicans have become, quite simply, the Party of the One Percent – the Party of the Rich.

"The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job in our democracy, which is to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility," says David Stockman, who served as budget director under Reagan. "They're on an anti-tax jihad – one that benefits the prosperous classes."

The staggering economic inequality that has led Americans across the country to take to the streets in protest is no accident. It has been fueled to a large extent by the GOP's all-out war on behalf of the rich. Since Republicans rededicated themselves to slashing taxes for the wealthy in 1997, the average annual income of the 400 richest Americans has more than tripled, to $345 million – while their share of the tax burden has plunged by 40 percent. Today, a billionaire in the top 400 pays less than 17 percent of his income in taxes – five percentage points less than a bus driver earning $26,000 a year. "Most Americans got none of the growth of the preceding dozen years," says Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist. "All the gains went to the top percentage points." read more