This was the wisdom of the constitution where any direct tax was to be in equal proportion - no progressive scale.
Imagine if every gov program that costs something increased everyone’s income tax - the phones in congress would be ringing off the hook.
The main reason the gov gets away with big spending is because it’s no skin off the teeth of the lower tax bracket folks.
Of course, if we did taxes this way, congress would simply disconnect their phone lines.
Too bad they weren’t smart enough to require a balanced budget and save us from the madness.