Ivins, Molly (2005) Feeling the tax squeeze THE GAZETTE, 8/17, 13a.

Proportionally the wealthy today pay less than in the past. That means the super rich. This does not mean the top 1%. It means the top one-tenth of the top 1 %. The tax load now is set up so that the super rich pay proportionally less than those who make between$30,000 to $500,000 a year for federal income tax, Medicare and Social Security.
Those who make $400,000 a year pay more proportionately than 7,000 households that make $25 million a year.

Fifty years ago (1955) corporations paid 60% of federal tax. Today, they pay 16%. In 1988, Congress cut the IRS funding in half. Thus, the agency is overwhelmed in trying to fight tax cheats.

Welfare was cut for the poor roughly 10 years ago. There were a lot of abuses. However, the promise was to cut corporate welfare. It didn’t happen.