Greg Sargent on the sense of the Senate resolution that says millionaires should “make a more meaningful contribution to the deficit reduction effort”:

That this vote is happening at all perfectly captures just how surreal this debate has become. Democrats have agreed to over $1 trillion in spending cuts, and have reportedly agreed to tens of billions in Medicare cuts as part of that package. The American people have declared in poll after poll after poll that they think the deficit should be addressed through a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes. Yet Republicans are simply refusing to entertain the possibility of any revenue increases of any kind — to the point where even conservative columnists like David Brooks are growing seriously alarmed by the anti-tax fanaticism that’s on display.

The notion that the wealthy should sacrifice anything at all in the way of higher taxes or revenues is now such a nonstarter that Dems are finding themselves forced to hold a vote on the general concept that the rich should contribute something “meaningful” to deficit reduction.

This is insane.

David Dayen adds:

I made this point implicitly, but yes, it’s deeply insane that we have to have a debate over the notion that the rich should contribute in a small way to any deficit reduction, when trillions are already on the table impacting the most vulnerable in society.

Yep, that about captures it. It’s insane and there really isn’t any effort from Democrats to point out this insanity and use that as leverage, alongside public opposition to cuts, for political purposes. The natural conclusion is that while Democrats are content to fight for the optics of taxing millionaires (this plus the notion that a 5:1 ratio is dramatically different than an all spending cuts deficit deal), they don’t actually care to tax millionaires or reduce the deficit by increasing revenue.