The announcement by Harvard University that it will increase financial aid sharply to families earning up to $180,000 a year puts into a fresh light the plans of the Democrats running for president to fund their spending programs by raising taxes on that same group of earners. Harvard’s press release described its new program as intended to aid “middle- and upper-middle-income families,” the same group that the Democrats describe as “the rich” while promising to raise taxes on them.

Harvard’s press release noted that even under the current rules, “there are more than 100 families with incomes greater than $200,000 who, because of extenuating circumstances, receive need-based financial aid.” It cited “family size, health care costs, sibling educational expenses, and other non-discretionary expenses that place a drain on family finances.” Those are all factors that would be overlooked by the tax-increasing Democratic presidential candidates.

We’ve written repeatedly in these columns that, given the costs of housing in New York City and of college tuitions, the $150,000 or so that many Democrats use as a threshold definition of “the rich” who deserve to pay more in taxes is out of whack. The word doesn’t seem to have penetrated to the candidates. The biggest advantage of the new Harvard plan might yet be not leaving more money in the pockets of parents but getting word to Democratic politicians who are inclined to listen to policy advice from Cambridge that those earning $180,000 or $200,000 a year or more in 2007 in America can use some tax relief, not a tax increase.