All the handwringing over the fiscal cliff has centered on the “job creators” and the “middle class,” but the last time I checked, there was a non-trivial segment of the US population that falls into neither of these categories: the poor.

And yet, the DC chattering class doesn’t notice the difference between these two, nor address the separate needs of these two goups.

How can you tell when an idea is really popular across the political spectrum? When both the Democratic and Republican candidates for president feel they must give it at least lip service in order to attract voters. So it is with the idea that rich people should pay taxes.

The American people overwhelming perceive the Republican party as the party of the rich. According to a new Pew Research poll, 63 percent think the GOP favors the wealthy while just 23 percent think it favors the middle class, and almost no one thinks the party favors the poor. By comparison there is a more equal distribution regarding what income group people think the Democratic party favors.

La Famiglia Romney has migrated to their Northern Compound in New Hampshire (because who wants to be in La Jolla in July? Ick) for summertime hijinks and they are having awesome compulsory family fun because Mitt and Ann are all patriarchal/matriarchal that way.

Mitt Romney is firmly viewed as the candidate of the rich and not the middle class according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. A remarkable 65 percent think Romney would do the most to advance the economic interests of the wealthiest Americans. In comparison, less than a quarter of voters think President Obama would do the most to help enrich those already very wealthy.

When people hear the name Mitt Romney the most common real descriptive word that springs to people’s mind is “rich,” just behind “no/no way.” If you treat “rich” and “wealthy” as basically the same response, then it is by far the most common concept people use to describe Romney. This is a big swing from earlier in the primary season when Romney was primarily associated with his Mormon faith and almost no one primarily associated him with his huge wealth.

It seems Mitt Romney really can’t help it. At every turn he accidentally reminds people just how incredible rich he really is. Even when Romney is trying to connect with regular Americans over what should be a broadly popular non-political issue, he still manages to slip in a line again reminding everyone he is absurdly richer than almost everyone else.

This particular poll result from Pew Research does a very good job of encapsulating the mood of the country and revealing why the 99 percent movement has managed to gain so much steam over the past month and a half. In these economic hard times strong majorities say that the government doesn’t do enough for regular people such as seniors, the middle class, poor people and children. Yet an overwhelming 64 percent of the country instead feels our government does too much to help the wealthy.

The war industry stood back with glee when it released a shoddy study that produced the sought-after deceptive headlines about defense spending, the magic sauce of job creation. There was no balance to these reports, and the War Industry should know, because they funded it!

While debate rages in the United States on whether to allow George W. Bush’s tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans to expire, Hillary Clinton spoke Thursday in Brussels before a planned Friday meeting of “Friends of Democratic Pakistan”, calling for Pakistan to expand its tax base. Clinton’s call for Pakistan to force the rich to bear their fair share of the tax burden seems to be a message that the US should heed, as well.