Interesting chart today in the Atlanta Journal Constitution via Felx Salmon at Reuters.

Then there is the reality, as depicted in the chart above, posted initially by Felix Salmon, a Reuters blogger. As it illustrates, the federal government today takes less of our GDP than it has for most of the past 60 years.

… Payroll taxes paid mainly by working people have grown considerably, both as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of federal revenue.

…Estate and gift taxes have been reduced to irrelevance. Our poor, overtaxed yet somehow highly profitable corporate sector also contributes much less than it did during the economic boom years of the ’50s and ’60s.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2010/12/07/a-one-stop-history-lesson-in-federal-taxes/