It wasn’t that long ago when former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney famously bemoaned the fact that almost half of all households did not pay federal income taxes.

Now, in a striking about-face, the Republican presidential contenders are proposing to dramatically increase the number of people who don’t pay.

Marco Rubio wants to cut an additional 10 million households from the rolls. Ted Cruz would drop 18 million.

Donald Trump would go further than both, proposing to excuse 33 million. That would push up the share of all households that don’t pay federal income taxes to almost two-thirds.