As I listen to all of the politicians, I wonder: just what is the amount of taxes that would equal "their fair share"?

If you ask people what they think, and don't ask their party affiliation first, you will get two answers. (1.) Everyone should pay about the same percentage, i.e. 'flat tax'. and (2) Taxes should be progressive. The rich should pay more because they GET more.

But what we see happening, which NEITHER party pretends to endorse, is that the richer you are the less you pay in taxes (as a percentage of income). This became an issue in the Romney campaign. He released only one tax return which showed he paid less in taxes than his workers. Romney tried to -brag- about this--'I pay as much as I need to, and not a cent more!' But I think the idea people heard was 'I'm really rich so I don't have to pay as much as little people! Lower taxes is one of the ways the US rewards me for being rich!'

Even Republicans believe in 'fair' taxation, meaning EVERYONE PAYS THE SAME PERCENTAGE! Reagan's great 'tax reform' was supposed to be a flat tax. In every election since then Republican candidates and even Democrats have floated Flat Tax plans, because they saw that's what many Americans wanted, what people thought was fair.

Personally I'm liberal/progressive and I think a progressive tax would be better. But I'd go for a truly flat tax, that would certainly be better than what we have now. But even Republican 'flat tax' ideas have a lot of loopholes and tax shelters so the rich won't pay as much--for instance no taxes on capital gains, no inheritance taxes, etc. so the rich can get richer and richer at everyone else's expense.

You do know there are different economic theories, right? The one pushed most often by the right is trickle-down economics, which takes from the middle class to give to the rich. Trickle-down economics has never worked and will never work. Even daddy Bush called it “voodoo economics.”

Democrats, on the other hand, generally believe in buttressing the middle class because that is the engine that drives our society. The rich do not always put their money back into the market--they often stash it in off-shore or Swiss bank accounts. The middle class, on the other hand, always spends their money, which pumps up the economy.

Both parties redistribute wealth. The Repubs take from the middle class and give to the wealthy (as Bush did for eight years, with the results we saw in 2008) and the Dems take from the very wealthy and give to the middle class. I guess you have to decide which one of those theories benefits you.

It isn't a question of "fair". It is a question of do you support the rich, or the middle class?

If you support the rich, then you want as low of taxes as possible.

If you support the middle class, then you need to prevent people from hoarding resources and becoming rich.

You can either have a strong middle class, or a much smaller strong wealthy class. Our tax code shouldn't be judged on if it is fair to the rich. It should be judged according to how many middle class jobs there are. And the rich are a drain on society, because they need to hoard resources to become rich.

Most of the rich and the corporations pay very little to no tax. Look it up. They use loopholes and lawyers. In other words, their "fair share" is the percentage in the current tax code, but they're not paying. They are cheating the rest of us. We pay more of our income in taxes than they do.

0 business taxes, and an income independent personal tax. Equal for all Americans.

50 percent of all profits