We hear a lot about taxes being too high on the rich and the corporations.  Are they really being abused as they claim they are?  If you look at the historical tax rates, you can see that their whining is unfounded.  Also keep in mind that these tax rates are pre-deductions and loopholes.

If you want to return to the "good ol' days" of the 50s and 60s, you might consider the tax rates on upper incomes during those years.

While we're not quite at a historic low, we're far from being at the historic high of 94%.  We also don't have dirt roads like they had in the early 1900s.  The rich are not being "bled dry" as they claim.  Even if they actually PAID 35%, they wouldn't be taxed as much as they have been in the past.  Most of the large corporations, though, pay little to no taxes and often receive taxpayer dollars in grants and government contracts.  Reuters states the following.

"The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.

More than half of foreign companies and about 42 percent of U.S. companies paid no U.S. income taxes for two or more years in that period, the report said.

During that time corporate sales in the United States totaled $2.5 trillion, according to Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who requested the GAO study."

The rich aren't suffering as they say they are.  They aren't missing any meals like millions of Americans are.  They're not having to do without lights, water, electricity, or food as many are.  They don't have to decide between buying their medication or giving up one of the previously mentioned necessities as many are having to do.  Why are so many people being fooled into thinking that the rich are being treated so badly?

Sources:

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/12/us-usa-taxes-corporations-idUSN1249465620080812