Fox’s The Five discussed income inequality in typical Fox News fashion yesterday: by smearing those with a different point of view and playing the victim at the same time. Co-host Andrea Tantaros, who thinks she’d “look fabulous” living on a food stamp diet, summed it up when she likened those who want to address income inequality to “poverty pimps,” “rat catchers” and pickpockets.

Apparently, Tantaros opted for cosmetic surgery instead of the food stamp diet. But she didn't seem to gain any new charm to go with her new look. She “asked” about those trying to address income inequality, “Isn’t it that they really don’t want the solution because stirring up income inequality stirs up anger and resentment and they can use that for political purposes?”

If anyone should know about stirring up anger and resentment it’s Tantaros, who once told her radio show listeners, “Do me a favor, punch (an Obama supporter) in the face.” And, of course, on Fox, anger and resentment is the same as patriotism.

Eric Bolling said, “The problem is… over the years… taxation and redistribution of wealth, it’s not working.”

Actually, our recent tax policy has exacerbated income inequality – by favoring high earners like The Five co-hosts. Last June, the Economic Policy Institute reported:

Income inequality in the United States—already well above that experienced in other advanced economies—has surpassed Gilded Age levels, and the Great Recession…While market forces are the primary driver of rising inequality, recent economic research suggests that tax policy has contributed as well, both by exacerbating after-tax income inequality since the late 1970s and by spurring a shift of pretax income toward high-income households.

…(T)o the degree that policymakers are interested in pushing back against the growth of inequality, it is critical to understand the impact and scope of tax policy, one of the more concrete policy levers affecting inequality.

Either Bolling, supposedly a business news expert at Fox, either didn’t know that or he pretended not to know.

Not that Punch- ‘em Tantaros corrected him. She showed just the same insights here as she did previously about food stamps. She suggested that anyone concerned about income inequality wants everyone to lead cookie cutter lives, “tak(ing) the same vacations” and “driv(ing) the same cars.” As opposed to everyone, say, having the means to even take a vacation at all. Her idea of what income inequality constitutes: “What’s wrong with a guy living on a street making, say, 40, 50 thousand dollars a year and someone making ten million dollars year a couple doors down. Why is that such a problem?”

Greg Gutfeld was also a deep thinker on the subject. He compared inequality to “asking a python what can be done about a mouse.” Apparently, the rich are the mice here. “Inequality is the next step in coercion. Historically, this is how it’s done. You identify an issue, in this case, income inequality, you create the conflict, you stress urgency, you nominate yourself as the solution and then you watch people suffer and die, then it’s rinse and repeat.” Our hearts weep for you, Greg.

Tantaros, however, seems to like playing the victim (except when she’s thinking about dieting on food stamps). She said, “Theyre essentially picking pockets, Bob, …almost like poverty pimps …Like the rat catcher… wants to keep rats running around because or else he wouldn’t have a job, it seems like that’s what they’re trying to do here.”

Fox News: sending Valentines of hate to America every day of the year.

Video below via Media Matters.