Why is it that the only taxes that are deemed “unfair” are the ones that primarily affect rich people? Republicans have convinced the public that taxing divdends is “double taxation”, turned the estate tax into the “death tax”, and complained loudly about how unfair it is that the super-rich are bearing the tax burden for the poor. One of the reasons Republicans have been so effective is that they can boil every issue down into an “us vs. them” argument. While the Democrats are busy discussing the complexities of an issue, the Republicans are already telling the public the issues are simple and that they’ve got the answers.

The answer to this is that the Democrats need to come up with as many buzzwords as possible and disseminate them among themselves. The Republicans are experts at this. Their rhetoric instantly enters the lexicon because they all start using it at the same time and act like they’ve been saying it for years. The only way for the Democrats to counter this kind of rhetoric is to come up with some rhetoric of their own. That said, here’s a couple suggestions :

Earned Money Taxes - Taxes on money that is earned as the result of actual labor (ie. your paycheck), primarily payroll and income taxes.

Found Money Taxes - Taxes on money that is earned that doesn’t involve labor (eg. estate taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, etc.) Found money taxes are the exact opposite of “earned money taxes”.

Every time the president talks about tax cuts, every Democrat needs to be on TV the next day saying things like :

“It’s a shame that the president is more concerned with cutting the taxes on found money than the taxes on earned money.”

“The president and I agree on tax cuts, but I think the American people would be better off if we cut the taxes on work money than luck money.”

“On one hand you’ve got someone who spends 15 minutes a week trading stock and on the other hand you’ve got a single mother who works 80 hours a week at her two jobs so she can afford clothes for her kids that she never sees. You tell me who deserves a bigger tax cut.”