What exactly do I need to "take" with a large grain of salt? Have you been in seclusion for the past 20 years? I'm pretty sure we're at the point where the burden of proof is on the billionaires to demonstrate they aren't funnelling away their money, not vice versa.
However, there is a lot that says that the 1% actually pay the vast majority of taxes collected:
https://www.publishedreporter.com/2021/04/05/op-ed-top-1-inc...
https://howmuch.net/articles/high-income-americans-pay-major...
https://taxfoundation.org/top-1-percent-pays-more-taxes-bott...
The billionaires may pay more tax individually, but they don’t pay a fair share, if that’s true. Given what we know about Trump’s taxes and what Buffett has been saying, I found it entirely believable.
I suppose that cuts both ways then: https://theintercept.com/2019/04/13/tax-day-taxes-statistics...
FICA taxes are capped because the benefits are as well.
Yes, that's an argument against people who want Europe-style social programs while simultaneously making the US tax code even more progressive than it already is (it's generally considered the the most progressive in the world).
It's true that the top 1% to pay most of the taxes, and it's also true that the top 0.1% or so pay a significantly lower tax rate than those in the income ranges just below that level.
What a strange argument. I will personally pay 95% of all taxes in the US if I somehow make me make 99% of all income. Which seems fairly equivalent to your point, except both of my numbers are slightly exaggerated.
On top of that, the top 20% of income earners do pay a larger share of taxes overall than their share of revenue, even according to organizations advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy: https://theintercept.com/2019/04/13/tax-day-taxes-statistics...