http://www.economist.com/blogs/democ...7/tax-fairness
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Sometimes, the line is incorrectly adumbrated to a claim that half of Americans pay no taxes, which isn't true; all Americans pay some mix of payroll taxes, state taxes, capital-gains taxes, sales taxes and so forth.
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How poor would you be if you were too poor to pay federal income tax, strictly on the basis of your income and the standard deductions? Basically, you'd be making less than $20,000 a year, though you've still got a small chance of qualifying if you make under $40,000 and have some kids.
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What most people who say increase the tax base fail to realize is how poor many Americans are. There's a huge level of poverty and the biggest reason so many people pay no income tax is there's not much to tax. Not to mention, all Americans are taxed in some way as the Economist article says.
The wealth disparity in the United States has been growing rapidly and the uber-rich have horded more and more of the wealth. This isn't at all up for debate as it's clear in the numbers the extremely rich have seen their net worth explode while the middle class has seen its stagnate over the last 20 years.
I'm for phasing out all of the Bush tax cuts, but I also think that the people who are making over a million a year should pay more on top of that. Poor people need the money and the US economy needs the poor people to keep their money so they can spend it in the economy. The rich will be as well off if they are taxed some more on their income over a million as they were before.