As Steve Benen did such a wonderful job of explaining in his post this Monday, Republicans continually claim to be the anti-tax party, but that label should come with an asterisk, because they really don't mind raising taxes on the poor. Those moochers had better get "some skin in the game" or else.

Case in point, one Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) who apparently decided that Mitt Romney didn't piss off quite enough Americans during the last election with his 47 percent remarks.

When Republicans endorse tax increases:

But as those who watch Republican politics closely know, the anti-tax rule needs an asterisk. The party hates tax increases with every fiber of its being, unless you're poor. Luke Johnson flagged this quote from Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.).

"You know, folks mock Mitt Romney for what he said, but he's right. Forty-seven percent of American citizens pay zero in income taxes. It's just true," Woodall said, according to remarks recorded by Georgia Fair Share. [...]

"In fact, the bottom 30% of American citizens profit from the tax code because they're getting refundable tax credits back," Woodall says in the video. "I don't care if you're paying a dollar. You need to believe that you are involved in the process, and you need to have skin in the game."

There are a couple of relevant angles to this. First, Romney's "47 percent" thesis wasn't just the percentage of Americans who don't pay income taxes; it was also about characterizing nearly half the country, including seniors and veterans, as lazy parasites.

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Another Saturday, another segment on Faux News where they're attacking the poor and food stamp recipients, which, other than attacking union members, seems to be one of their favorite pastimes during their so-called "business block," From Cavuto on Business, after Cavuto opens the segment dismayed about all of the people "on the dole" still receiving food stamps and guest Dagen McDowell carrying on about how this is proof that "big government" is out of control, we got this bit of nastiness out of regular, Charles Payne:

CAVUTO: The argument, Charles Payne, is that once you get them, it's hard to stop them, so the benefit is there and it's hard to take the benefit of it away and the more people that are getting them, then it's just exponentially grows.

PAYNE: Yeah, well there's absolutely no doubt about that, that there's this idea that, you know, between the food stamps and the welfare and the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit and the local programs, you know, it gets a little comfortable to be in poverty, you know... and I know people are going to.... listen. No. Listen, I've lived it first hand. I've seen where people don't go to work because they get everything paid for them. The incentive is not there.

Yeah, all of those lucky ducky poor people who are just living the high life out there. Charlie Gasparino attempted to assert himself as somewhat of the voice of reason in the segment and a number of the members of the panel admitted that unemployment numbers are still terrible and people are hurting out there, but it really didn't get much better from there. Ben Stein made the ridiculous remark that "the war on hunger" appears to have been won, ignoring the fact that we've got millions of children in this country who don't know where their next meal is coming from -- and ignoring that lack of access to nutritious food and eating cheap junk that is bad for you instead is contributing to the problem with obesity, not that poor people out there have too much money to spend on food.

What we were treated to here is yet another example of Fox and their war on anti-poverty measures:

Not content to shame food stamps recipients and bully them into silence, Fox News is now targeting efforts to raise awareness of poverty and food insecurity.

The latest front in the Fox News war on anti-poverty measures takes aim at chef Mario Batali as he highlights the difficulties of living on food stamps -- problems that are routinely dismissed on Fox while the network pushes for drastic cuts to nutritional aid and other anti-poverty measures.

h/t Media Matters

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Good for Rep. James Clyburn for taking Fox's Neil Cavuto to task for one of their favorite talking points over at Uncle Rupert's Republican propaganda channel -- that forty six percent of the country are a bunch of slouchers that "don't have any skin in the game" because they're not paying any income tax. As Clyburn pointed out to Cavuto, what he's really advocating for is raising taxes on the poor.

Here's more from News Hounds (emphasis mine) -- Rep. Clyburn Deftly Destroys Cavuto's "Tax The Poor More" Argument:

On yesterday’s Your World, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) spoke about taxes and spending. It didn’t take long for Cavuto to become argumentative over the thought of taxing the rich – and not the poor – more. Clyburn did a great job holding his ground and even managed to reframe the argument so as to put Cavuto on the defensive over Mitt Romney’s finances.

“We should also get serious about big revenue raisers… Our tax code is crying out for reform. Let’s reform this tax code. Let’s make sure that everybody has the same benefit, everybody’s playing by their same rules,” Rep. Clyburn said.

Cavuto responded, “So does that include, Sir, the nearly half of all households that pay no income tax right now? Would it be fair that they put some skin in the game?”

Clyburn answered, “If you don’t pay income tax, that means you’re aren’t making any income.”

”No, that’s actually not true,” Cavuto argued, “…Now a lot of these people are paying Social Security, Meidcare, what have you, but I can understand a few percent being not able to pay anything, and that’s fine, but 46%?”

”That’s why Richard Nixon… gave us the Earned Income Tax Credit,” Clyburn said.

”I know but we’re up to 46% not paying any income tax,” Cavuto said.

Clyburn had a great answer. “So what?”

”So what? That’s a big deal!” Cavuto said. But not a big deal that such a large percentage of the country doesn’t have a high enough income to pay.

”They’re contributing to the economic growth in the country,” Clyburn said. Read on...

If Democrats are going to go on Fox News, this is the way you treat Neil Cavuto and his ilk when they repeat these talking points which if followed through on would mean that those living in poverty would see their taxes go up along with senior citizens living on a fixed income and Social Security. It's an all too rare occasion, sadly, that these talking heads ever get any push back on just who they're claiming aren't paying their fair share in taxes. It was also nice to see Clyburn bring up the fact that it was a Republican, Richard Nixon of all people, who held the opposite views of today's extremists on the right and gave us the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Full transcript via Fox below the fold.

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During her recent interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board, Michele Bachmann's statements about torture and waterboarding were not the only outrageous statements the GOP presidential candidate made. She also decided to double down on her recent debate performance, where she said we should "Be more like China, and end "Great Society" programs. During this interview, Bachmann came straight out and advocated eliminating the earned income tax credit, food stamps and public housing.

Naturally during this same interview she was advocating lowering the corporate tax rates and for an extremely unfair and regressive flat tax, because heaven forbid we can't have those lazy poor people out there not paying their fair share in taxes.

From The Des Moines Register article:

In the wide-ranging, hourlong discussion with the Register, Bachmann also touched on numerous policies she would pursue as president, including a review of defense spending, an expansion of domestic energy production, federal regulatory reform and an overhaul of the tax code.

Many of her priorities focus on cuts and reductions to social programs benefiting the poor.

Her tax reform plan, for example, calls for an end to the earned-income tax credit, the tax relief program created in 1975 that can completely offset federal income taxes for the working poor and under certain circumstances could result in a cash payment to recipients.

Such a benefit gives one group of Americans a free ride while burdening another, she said, suggesting it also leads to unsustainable expectations for government benefits and services.

“We’re deluding ourselves if we’re embracing a dependency culture that looks like Greece,” she said.

She also called for a review of the “Great Society” — the raft of federal social services enacted in the 1960s under President Lyndon Johnson. Programs like food stamps and public housing that represent the “modern welfare state” are too expensive and need to be dismantled, she said.

“What I want to do is go through the Great Society programs, and I think a lot of them need to be ended,” she said.

Individual states, she said, could choose whether to provide those services in lieu of the federal government.

Among the federal programs enacted under the banner of the Great Society were the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs, food stamps, Head Start preschool and federal student loans.