The political battle over President Bush's tax-cut plan has centered on charges that it tilts too heavily to upper-income taxpayers. But the debate has obscured one fact about the nation's progressive tax system -- an increasingly small segment of the population pays a huge share of federal income taxes.Can't we just move to a flat tax system where everyone pays a percentage of their income each year? We could even use PayPal.
Consider this: The 400 wealthiest taxpayers pay about as much in federal income taxes as more than 40 million individuals and families at the bottom of the income scale, according to Internal Revenue Service data.
Those 400 taxpayers paid about $8.7 billion in taxes last year, more than enough to fund the State Department and its 30,000 employees in 250 embassies, consulates and other offices around the world.
via Signal vs. Noise
