There's nothing quite as juicy as a good class war.

Rich vs. poor, the haves vs. the have-nots, the good side of the family pitted against the not-so-good side.

Let's face it; we've been about class warfare in America for a long time.

President Barack Obama is being accused by Republicans of promoting class warfare after announcing an ambitious deficit reduction plan that will increase taxes for the very wealthy.

How wealthy?

Well, the White House is calling it "The Buffett Rule," in reference to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who is famously on record saying extremely rich people should pay more in taxes because they receive so many other advantages.

True to form, the idea of making obscenely rich folks pay more taxes freaked out the tea party crowd that currently holds the Republican Party hostage.

Wisconsin's own Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget committee that will have to negotiate with Obama to come up with an acceptable deficit reduction plan, blasted the president's proposal as politically motivated.

"He's in a political class warfare mode and campaign mode," Ryan said in reference to Obama's proposal. "And that's not good for our economy."

The class warfare mantra you hear from Republicans seems like a good indication of where their loyalties lie.

The political battles in D.C. fought over tax breaks for rich individuals and corporations always seem to feature GOP lawmakers on the side of the folks with Lear jets and golden parachutes.

Republicans claim that's because they want to protect those who create good jobs for the rest of us.

But since last month's report from the U.S. Department of Labor showed exactly zero new jobs were added to the U.S. economy in August, it seems all those rich folks must be sitting on their money while the rest of the country takes a turn for the worse.

Ryan, in particular, probably shouldn't bring up class warfare unless he wants to be reminded about being outed recently by a political website for buying a $350 bottle of wine during dinner with a group of economists in Washington, D.C.

Ryan paid for the wine but later insisted he didn't know the cost.

(Not a sign of economic savvy for the chairman of the House budget committee, if you ask me.)

I have actually met a few millionaires in my life, including U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and comedian Bill Cosby.

Both men strike me as the kind of rich Americans who don't mind giving more to help those with less as shown by their charitable donations over the years.

Aside from Powerball dreams, I'll likely never make as much money as the people Obama has in mind for higher taxes. But I don't think it's class warfare for very rich people to pay more when the rest of us are having to accept less in salary and benefits.

Real class warfare takes place when the working poor are pitted against each other by government officials with no real concern for them. As I suggested in a recent column, some people are reconsidering what it means to be poor, but it's never been that hard to figure out who's rich and who's not.

Sometimes, it's as easy as knowing when you're paying too much for a bottle of wine.

Contact Eugene Kane at (414) 223-5521 or ekane@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @eugene_kane