Who Pays Taxes?

The WSJ (A25, October 7, 2008) had more statistics on the tax debate:

The top 20% pay 67% of all federal taxes--including not just income taxes, but payroll taxes, corporate taxes, and death/estate taxes. The top 1% of earners pay 26% of all federal taxes.

If Republicans want a return to the Reagan era, pointing out raw numbers isn't the way to get there. The average American knows the rich make the lion's share of money in this country, and no matter what the percentages and numbers are, the rich don't have to worry about housing, food, or health care. Thus, the key goal of low-taxation advocates shouldn't be fairness per se. Instead, the goal should be to assure everyone that their tax contributions--no matter what the amount--are spent improving access to health care, infrastructure, and other quality-of-life services and cutting wasteful spending. A single dollar collected that goes towards more laws, more useless agencies, more unnecessary subsidies, and more lobbyist requests will damage everyone's faith in the system, leading to the rich and the corporations using tax avoidance schemes. In short, low-tax advocates must convince everyone that all taxes collected are going towards necessary services.

Americans want to be rich. Bashing the rich or openly soaking them won't work in America. The average American won't mind the rich making exponentially more than 90% of the population, as long as tax dollars are spent for necessary services. The debate should be about what services are necessary and how the government can best deliver them, and whether the government is the best entity to deliver those services.