To complete the statistical picture:

--population has grown 50% since 1965.. (source)

--per-capita income has doubled since 1967 (earliest year I found), in constant dollars, of course. (source)

Source: US Census Bureau

Another interesting factoid: Inequality of income as measured by the "GINI" metric grew from .358 in 1967 to .430 in 2000. Bottom line, the middle class has shrunk, while the number of people in both the top and bottom 20-percentiles has grown.

The total size of the budget isn't a particularly meaningful measure of the tax burden. How much has the per-capita tax burden grown, measured in terms of percentage of contribution?

It hasn't tripled, Tom. Get real.

--Robert