Who Pays the Income Taxes?

Newsmax gives us some statistics on those "evil" rich people and who pays the majority of all income taxes:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democrats have talked about repealing President Bush’s tax cuts for upper-income Americans. But those who earn the most money – and invest the most in the economy – are already paying almost all federal personal income taxes, a recent report reveals.

Congress’ Joint Economic Committee disclosed that the richer half of the American population pays nearly 97 percent of income taxes. Most of that, 54 percent, is paid by those in the top 5 percent, Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) disclosed.

And the richest of the rich – just the top 1 percent – pay a hefty 34 percent of all personal income taxes collected by the federal government.

Meanwhile, about 14 million lower-income Americans have been removed from the income tax rolls since 2000 due to the earned income tax credit and the per-child tax credit, IBD reports.

My attitude has always been that no one should get a free pass on income taxes. If you are benefiting from the things those taxes buy, such as a national defense, federal highways, airports, etc., you should be contributing to the effort, even if only a small token amount. That's why I tend to favor some form of flat tax which hits every earner at the same percentage rate, rather than requiring a few people to pay most of the taxes.