The problem is not the progressive tax system. How progressive it should be is a legitimate matter to be debated. The problem is that and middle class pay far

The problem is not the progressive tax system. How progressive it should be is a legitimate matter to be debated. The problem is that and middle class pay far too little in taxes, to the point where they happily allow elected officials to overspend. This is entirely rational from their perspective, since the most outrageous spending will only result in a few more dollars of taxes owed over the course of a year. It's known as a collective action problem in economics. For example, the Iraq war should have cost the typical middle class taxpayer at least $500 in 2001, $500 again in 2002, and so on. Instead, Bush gave a tax rebate intended to make a large swath of the population ignore the massive cost of the war. Why shouldn't the average American pay just over $1 per day for a war? Why shouldn't he/she pay just over $1 per day for healthcare? As it stands, both of these were free so why should anyone really give them too much thought? Bottom line: If the public actually had to pay for the grand schemes, there would be significant pressure not to waste money and taxes for everyone would be far lower than they are today. To argue against this you either misunderstand my point and thing I'm advocating raising taxes or you think that the public being blind to spending is a good thing.