people complained about it he said that "taxes should hurt," because he thought people should hate taxes.

"The tax system should not be an additional burden to those who are struggling to escape from poverty; insofar as possible, those below the poverty line should be freed from taxation altogether. By raising the personal exemption, the "zero bracket amounts," and earned income tax credit, and by expanding the credit for the blind, elderly, and disabled, the President's proposals would: (1) assure that virtually all families at or below the poverty line would be free from taxation; and (2) assure that virtually all older, blind, or disabled Americans at or below the poverty line would be freed from taxation." Reagan's 1985 Tax Proposal, Summary p. 5

So did W:

A tax rate of 15 percent is too high for those who earned low wages, so we must lower the rate to 10 percent ... People with the smallest incomes will get the highest percentage of reductions, and millions of additional American families will be removed from the income tax rolls entirely"

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/ronald-reagan-didnt-share-the-gops-47-percent-problem/250996/

Today's Repub party has done a total reverse on this issue and it is head scratching.