New Republic Writer: Word “taxpayer” favors conservatives, should be eliminated

The New Republic’s Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig recently wrote a piece in which she explains that the word “taxpayer” is an “ideologically weighted term” that favors conservatives and therefore should be eliminated from our vocabulary. NewsBusters,

In a Thursday article pegged to the just-released House Republican budget for fiscal 2016, Bruenig claimed that the use of “taxpayers” (rather than “people”) when discussing fiscal and economic issues benefits conservatives for reasons including that it “seems to subtly promote the idea that a person’s share in our democratic governance should depend upon their contribution in taxes” and bolsters the makers-vs.-takers argument that became associated with the GOP during the 2012 campaign.