( CNN ) It 's an almost too-perfect metaphor . This week brought news that a Republican member of Congress has decked out his office in the style of the mansion in `` Downton Abbey , '' the BBC series that Americans -- struggling against income inequality of historic proportions -- somehow ca n't get enough of . Maybe it 's because we can relate . The United States is fast becoming a real-life example -- or worse -- of the upstairs/downstairs inequality portrayed in the show . And it 's Republican policies that got us there and are making it worse . On Monday , Ben Terris , a reporter from The Washington Post , toured the Downton-inspired office of U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock , R-Illinois . Terris described the outer office : `` Bright red walls . A gold-colored wall sconce with black candles . A Federal-style bull's-eye mirror with an eagle perched on top . '' `` It 's actually based off of the red room in 'Downton Abbey ' `` a woman at the front desk told him . An interior designer from a company called ( no joke ) Euro Trash showed the reporter Schock 's private office . It 's another red room , `` [ t ] his one with a drippy crystal chandelier , a table propped up by two eagles , a bust of Abraham Lincoln and massive arrangements of pheasant feathers , '' he wrote . Schock 's decorator said the choice to imitate Downton Abbey 's ostentatious halls was made because the congressman is `` fresh-minded and forward-thinking . '' Um , sure , for the 1870s maybe -- when the inequitable accumulations of the robber barons and the subsequent Great Depression were but a twinkle in our forward-thinking eyes . Now under some scrutiny for accepting the free services of the Euro Trash decorator ( Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate ) , Schock insists he 's never even seen `` Downton Abbey . '' But he 's sure lived it -- if not in his brand spanking new aristocratic office than as a resident of the Republican Party . Here 's `` Schock-er '' : Income inequality in the United States right now is worse than in post-Edwardian England , the era depicted in `` Downton Abbey . '' The richest Americans today take home a higher share of our nation 's income than the aristocratic lords and ladies of 1920s England . What 's more , low-wage employees -- such as fast food restaurant workers and Walmart cashiers -- take home a smaller share of our nation 's income than the butlers and cooks did back then . That unequal reality is even more gaudy than Aaron Schock 's office . And it is without question the direct result of Republican policies . Tax cuts for the wealthy and the deregulation of business have ensured that the share of wealth enjoyed by big business and the top 1 % has continued to climb , even in the recession . In fact , the top 1 % suffered only one-third of the income loss during the recession but have basically reaped all the gains of the recovery . Meanwhile , despite overall economic growth and the growth of worker productivity , most Americans have seen their wages stagnate or even decline . The working poor in America today may have wireless telephones , automobiles and indoor privies , but they still very much live in basement of the U.S. economy . When the Republican Gov . Sam Brownback of Kansas cut taxes with a severity and speed never before attempted by any other state , he was actively cheered on by conservatives . His stated goal was to get the tax rate down to zero . The result ? The economy in Kansas plummeted . Job growth has failed to keep pace with the national level . Giant revenue gaps led to drastic cuts in public services such as schools . Credit rating agencies even cut the state 's previously stellar bond rating . And 100 Republican leaders in Kansas endorsed a Democratic candidate to replace Brownback as governor because , they said , Brownback 's tax and budget cuts had so severely hurt the state 's working class and middle class families . Narrowly re-elected , Brownback announced recently that he will now raise taxes in Kansas to fix the state economy . As if the failure of GOP anti-tax , anti-government economics had n't already been proved by the record wealth and corporate profits at the top juxtaposed against record numbers of poor people and low-wage workers relying on food stamps , Kansas should be seen as the final nail in the coffin . Wealth from the top does not `` trickle down '' to the bottom to lessen inequality . It never has . It 's time for Republicans to do more than talk . It 's time they admit that their precious economic theories are actually the poison sickening our economy . Republicans in Congress might have a mini-PR scandal on their hands with the revelations about Schock 's office . But it 's the massive moral crisis that should be weighing on their shoulders , hearts and minds . Republicans need a new , populist economic theory that helps the majority of Americans and not just the elite 1 % . But to get there , they 'll need a fundamental shift of perspective and priorities to say the least . Maybe start with redecorating .
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