Investor’s Business Daily opines on how tax rates are lower today, yet the rich are paying a much larger share of the tax burden. And since revenues are at record highs, this should be an ideal scenario for the left. In reality, however, it appears that the left is more interested in punishing success with high tax rates – even if the government gets less money to redistribute:

In 2005, the latest full year for data, the top 1% of earners accounted for 21.2% of all income, but paid 39.4% of all federal taxes. The top 5% earned 35.8% of all income and paid 60% of the taxes. That’s right: The top 5% paid more in income taxes than the remaining 95% combined. Go back to 1980 – the dawn of the Reagan era – and the top 1% paid just 19% of all taxes and the top 5% just 37%. It is an irrefutable fact, therefore, that taxes are more progressive (rich pay more, in Democrat-speak) than ever. And it happened with Republican presidents holding office in 19 of 27 years, during a period when, paradoxically, tax rates on the highest incomes fell.