Amazingly, I basically agree with what you are saying. The one error you are making is in how much taxes the rich pay. The top 1% pay almost half of our taxes. your media spins this as if they pay nothing... no, they pay HALF of all taxes. The bottom 50% pay ZERO. How can we say the top earners pay too little when the top 1%... a very small group of people... pay half of what it takes to run our country. The other 49% pay the other half... and the remaining 50% pay ZERO. The people who benefit most from government programs pay nothing. The people that benefit the very least pay for everything. It''s a giant wealth transfer from rich to poor. Think about it for 2 seconds... if you make millions per year, you'll pay millions in taxes. A poor person will never pay millions in taxes, they are poor. Clearly, if you are super rich and paying millions in taxes, you'll take advantage of every legal tax shelter you can. Guess who doesn't use tax shelters? Poor people... they are poor and don't pay federal income tax so they don't need tax shelters. The media spins these facts as if the rich are somehow not 'paying their share.' They are paying their share, and your share, and my share, and half the countries share. If you cut taxes by 1%... someone paying millions in taxes will save hundreds of thousands in taxes. Does a poor person save hundreds of thousands in taxes with a 1% tax cut? No, of course not. They pay zero.