Currently, less than 1/2 of adults pay income taxes. That causes undeniable pressures.
Those who don’t pay income taxes want tax rates raised (on those who do pay) and want more and more freebies from the gov’t.
Those who do pay are starting to say “I don’t think so”.
Watch this trend big time in 2010.
The GOP victories reveal fissures in the coalition that elected Barack Obama.
In the election results and the exit polls there are clear signs that the Obama majority coalition has splintered.
Mr. Obama benefited last year from a big turnout of young voters, who backed him by a 66% to 32% margin. This year young voters formed only about half as large a percentage of the electorate in Virginia and New Jersey as they did in 2008, and in Virginia they voted about as Republican as their elders.
Economically, the Obama majority was a top-and-bottom coalition. The Democratic ticket carried voters with incomes under $50,000 and over $200,000, and lost those in between.
As the shrewd liberal analyst Thomas Edsall has noted, there’s a tension between what these groups want.
High earners in non-Southern suburbs have been voting Democratic since the mid-1990s largely because of their liberal views on cultural issues;
Low earners vote Democratic because they want more government money shoveled their way.
Tuesday’s elections suggest those whose money gets shoveled are having second thoughts about this odd-couple coalition.
Excerpted from WSJ: Tuesday’s Biggest Loser: the Union Agenda, Nov 4, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013004574515681098665524.html?mod=djemEditorialPage
The Homa Files 
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