Reagan had no trouble raising payroll taxes on the middle class and working poor while cutting income taxes disproportionately for the wealthy. Bush made estate and capital gains tax cuts a top priority even though neither cut directly benefited anyone struggling to get by. At the state level, conservative Republicans frequently advocate revenue sources that unfairly punish the middle class, such as a sales taxes and the flat income tax.
The modern Republican tax agenda is to push the burden unfairly onto the backs of the middle class and not asking the wealthiest in society to pay their fair share. The first Republican President had a different view.
Once again, I'll reference one of my favorite works on Lincoln, Lincoln's Preparation for Greatness by Paul Simon. It quotes a letter Lincoln wrote defending his support for a tax increase.
...I believe it can be sustained, because it does not increase the tax upon the "many poor" but upon the "wealthy few" by taxing the land that is worth $50 or $100 per acre, in proportion to its value, instead of, as heretofore, no more than that which was worth $5 per acre. This valuable land, as is well known, belongs, not to the poor, but to the wealthy citizen.Republicans successfully reduced the amount of payroll tax cuts in Obama's stimulus plan that would have helped the "many poor" and middle class. Simultaneously, John McCain and other Republicans argued for more corporate and capital gains tax cuts targeted to benefit the wealthy. Clearly, if Lincoln were here today, he would side with liberal Democrats.
On the other hand, the wealthy can not justly complain, because the change is equitable within itself, and also a sine qua non to a compliance with the Constitution. If, however, the wealthy should, regardless of the justness of the complaint, complain of the change, it is still to be remembered, that they are not sufficiently numerous to carry the elections.
Very Respectfully,
A. Lincoln
It's also interesting to note Lincoln's lack of concern about the voting power of the wealthy. In his day, newspapers were run by party organizations that presented opposing sides. Today, we have a media owned and funded by corporate special interests. News coverage universally reflects the financial interests of the owners and that includes GE-MSNBC.
Why else do we see constant stories about how Wall Street will react to the stimulus package instead of how the average person will react? The wealthy few are able to amplify their voice in politics more easily than they did in Lincoln's time.