Free Republic

Democrats like to define themselves as the party of poor and middle-income Americans, but a new study says they now represent the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional districts. In a state-by-state, district-by-district comparison of wealth concentrations based on Internal Revenue Service income data, Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, found that the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional jurisdictions were represented by Democrats. He also found that more than half of the wealthiest households were concentrated in the 18 states where Democrats hold both Senate seats. "If you take the wealthiest one-third of the...

... Democrats in Congress are saying they now want to address the "wealth gap" even as they deplore and want to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT. It was a previous crusade against the wealthy that created the AMT. Haven't we learned anything about the perils of tax policy rooted in political envy? ...The latest data indicate that the eight states with the highest percentage of tax filers subject to the AMT all voted heavily Democratic in 2004 and 2006 -- including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Those voters are now screaming for relief, and the question...