49% of Americans pay no federal income tax

Some of them are very wealthy, and therefore aren't employed. They let their wealth work for them. Or they create non-profits with their wealth and contribute to them. But most are on the receiving end.

A worker with a stay at home spouse and 4 children, might earn $50,000/year and receive a check from the government instead of owing--Earned Income Tax Credit. That worker is better off than someone earning $65,000 and paying taxes. It keeps people in the low income bracket.

Our tax system is called "progressive," not in the political sense, but in economic. The more you earn, the higher your rate of taxes. The top quintile is paying for the rest of us. Democrats lie in spirit when they whine that the breaks go to the richest in the new tax plan. The wealthy are paying more than their fair share because of this progressive system.

The top 1% of Americans, who have an average income of more than $2.1 million, pay 43.6% of all the federal individual income tax in the U.S.; the top 0.1% — just 115,000 households, whose average income is more than $9.4 million — pay more than 20% of it. (Market Watch, 2016) Tell me what is fair about 1% paying 43.6%. But it is progressive. Tax Foundation uses different figures--not sure why these figures never match, but the outcome remains the same, the more you make, the more you pay for it. It's the American way.