Unprogressive tax policy

I guess I'm no longer shocked by this plan to extend the income limits of the child tax credit to the wealthy, while doing nothing for the working poor. I've simply gotten used to the gradual chipping away (and in some cases, blasting away) at the very notion of a progressive income tax system.

Republicans in Congress continue their long time plan to "starve the beast" that is the federal government (even while troops in Iraq are insufficiently supplied with body armour and armoured vehicles) and Democrats stand meekly by. And the voters reward this. Polls show most Americans are uninformed on how the tax system has been tilted in favor of the rich while the disadvantaged pay an increasingly disproportionate amount of their money back to the government through payroll taxes and sales taxes, particularly the absurd amount taxed on cigarettes.

It often feels like the start of the 20th Century, when monied interests firmly controlled the government, cartels controlled commerce, and the poor were effectively disenfranchised.