Oh, and did you know?

Bloomberg:

Capital gains made up 63 percent of the richest 400 Americans’ adjusted gross income in 2006, or a combined $66.1 billion, according to the data. In all, the 400 wealthiest Americans reported a combined $105.3 billion of adjusted gross income in 2006, the most recent year for which the IRS has data.

Bill Donius at Huffington Post:

The richest 1% of Americans earned $1.3 trillion in 2004, an amount greater than the total national income of Canada. Further the top 1% of Americans has 33% of the country's wealth. The tax policy center estimates that 80% of the tax savings from the Bush tax cuts went to the top 10% of taxpayers and almost 20% went to the top one tenth of 1%! Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Frank in his very insightful book, "Richistan", reported these figures.
[Emphasis mine]

h/t to bubbanomics at Daily Kos for drawing my attention to these. Bubbanomics' post ended with this sentence: "During the 50's, a time fondly remembered by the GOP as one of prosperity (among other things), the top marginal tax rate was over 90%!" And h/t to budhydharma who referenced bubbanomics today. Budhydharma writes today: " In point of fact, the Republican Party is not much more than [the] Political Arm of The Ruling Class."

Oh, there's class warfare all right. The rich and powerful have been waging it against the rest of us, and quite successfully, for some time (especially the last eight years). They are terrified that their comfy arrangements may come crashing in around their ears. I can only hope so, because this nation and the world desperately need a more equitable economic arrangement.

Government of, by, and for the People is the last thing they want.
--the BB