Having just filed your income tax returns you might be interested: recently The Wall Street Journal had a series recently purporting to prove that the wealthy pay MORE than their share of taxes.
There were a number of things wrong with their argument:
they looked at totals not income shares, not at income not taxed, but the most flawed part of their argument was that they neglected to mention taxes other than the income tax. Now, the income tax is mildly progressive on its face, less so in effect, but most Americans pay as much or more on other taxes: sales, excise, property, school, and payroll, to name a few.
When you add those in, the share of taxes paid by the highest income receivers is roughly proportional to even the lowest income receivers.
But the wealthy get a lot more for their money, don't they? Like high profits from defense industries contracting for our nasty little war. What do the poor get? Opportunities to be shot at/bombed in Iraq.
Which is why the Dems ought to repeal those high-end tax cuts the Repubs passed in the last 6 years.