And I can still find plenty of rightists who have somehow convinced themselves that leftists love to pay exorbitant taxes, and are delighted to see tax money wasted and misspent, too. It's the emphasis placed on these things that determines the differences between right vs left.

You still can't seem to understand that in principle what we are both saying is true, but what we choose to believe that is significant is where the difference in philosophy lies. Giving the government "almost complete control of the economy" is not what I say, it's what you say I say so that you need not hear any of my arguments and to allow yours to sound so self-evident and obvious. It's the equivalent of saying conservatives want carte blanche to do anything they please with no supervision or regulation. And I love how you slam "European socialism" and yet complain how their corporate taxes are so much lower than ours. Actually, there may be something to be said for that....Don't tax the corporations, they create jobs, tax the managers and the stockholders. I like the sound of that.

As for the rich paying greater taxes, they are the ones who should, they can afford it. First, they have more disposable income, they pay the same prices for necessities that the poor do, so a much larger proportion of their income is available for discretionary spending. The flat tax sounds fair at first sight, but when you think about it carefully it is brutally oppressive on the poor. I'm not surprised the right is in love with the idea. I can imagine the howls of protest that will elicit from the right, (their concept of civic virtue differs from mine) but the fact remains the rich benefit more from the society, they SHOULD pay more. I am not rich, but my tax bill is still substantially greater than the poor's, not just in absolute terms, but proportionately as well. I do not resent them this, it is a price I gladly will pay for my prosperity relative to theirs. This is as it should be, I owe the community this. It is my obligation as a citizen and I consider it it my patriotic duty.

Of course, I don't have available to me the many tax dodges and special cases that allow the rich to avoid so much of their taxes, and I actually do agree with some conservatives that the tax code should be reduced to two simple numbers: the minimum income below which no taxes should be levied (X), and the percentage rate every penny above X should be be taxed at (Y). X and Y could then be determined by our elected representatives according to fiscal circumstances and the political process. Just think, no lobbyists, no accountants, no lawyers, no exemptions, no dodges, no accounts in the Bahamas, no sweet deals for capital gains, no writeoffs, no depreciation, no shelters, no sales taxes, no nothing. It ain't the poor who have lobbied for a Federal tax law that dwarfs the Manhattan telephone directory. It benefits the rich.