Frame This: A Tax Deal for the Top 3.5 Percent

Under the just passed Republican tax deal ...

If you make less than $10,000/year, you will save $0 in taxes annually.
If you make $10,000-20,000/year, you will save $3 in taxes annually.
If you make $20,000-30,000/year, you will save $10 in taxes annually.
If you make $30,000-$40,000/year, you will save $17 in taxes annually.
If you make $40,000-50,000/year, you will save $47 in taxes annually.
If you make $50,000-75,000/year, you will save $112 in taxes annually.
If you make $75,000-100,000/year, you will save $406 in taxes annually.
If you make $100,000-200,000/year, you will save $1,395 in taxes annually.
If you make $200,000-500,000/year, you will save $4,527 in taxes annually.
If you make $500,000-1 million/year, you will save $5,656 in taxes annually.
If you make more than $1million/year, you will save $42,766 in taxes annually.

Less than 3.5 percent of U.S. taxpayers fall into the category of making $200,000 a year or more.

So, this is a targeted tax cut -- at a $70 billion cost to the Treasury -- for less than THREE AND A HALF PERCENT of the population.

These figures are according to the Tax Policy Center.

Can this please mark the end of the Democratic Party debate about themes, vision, metaphors, and framing?

Or, at least, can it be subordinated to agreement that what the Party needs is to say clearly what it is against -- including especially the transfer of wealth and power from everyone else to the rich but primarily to the super-rich -- and what it is for?

To their credit, the Congressional Democrats almost unanimously opposed the Republican tax madness.

Can they now head out to the campaign trail and pound relentlessly on the Republican class warfare, and pledge to undo it?

As Bob Herbert cogently wrote yesterday in the New York Times, "Enough already with the analyses ad nauseam of the strategies and tactics and philosophies that the Democratic Party should pursue to regain power in upcoming elections. ... Now would be an excellent time for Democrats to pounce, to show genuine leadership. This is not the time for yet another round of thumb-sucking, for more mind-numbing nonsense about narratives and framing, for more abstract talk about how to define the party. The public needs to know what you plan to do about the war. What's your energy policy? How should we deal with Iran?"