Progressive taxation systems ensure that individuals with greater financial resources contribute more to the state, which can help reduce economic inequality.
By redistributive policies, we really mean our progressive tax system and social insurance policies, like transfers towards lower income households, including food stamps or cash transfers.
But for some of these foundational Democratic values of housing equality, progressive taxation and education equality, Democrats don't actually embody their values very well.
Income taxes in the US are already somewhat progressive, which means that there are tax brackets that require the rich to pay a higher percent of income.
In short, the combination of inflation and progressive income taxation laws means rising tax rates for a given real income, even when the tax laws remain unchanged.