Romney's comments about the 47 percent were baffling because this is what Republicans wanted. As Ezra Klein notes, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush's tax cuts are why so many people don't pay federal income tax now. Refundable tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are rightly thought of as good conservative tax policy by wonks like Reihan Salam. These credits help the poor, but don't reduce work incentives -- a point research has borne out.

In other words, the 47 percent exist mostly because of Republican policies with Democratic stamps of approval. And they exist because we pay different amount of taxes at different times in our lives. Sometimes we're in school. Sometimes we're out of work. Sometimes we retire from work. Republicans used to think it made sense for us to not pay federal income taxes at these times.