[ancient_geezer]

And another paper and federal statistic cite within it as well.

Another from IPI, including source references to total tax of 54% of annual personal consumption. Knowing that $2 are collected in federal taxes for every $1 collected state & local, that works out to be 36% embedded federal taxes.

Hmmm, a googling we do go.

http://www.ipi.org/ipi/IPIPublications.nsf/PublicationLookupFullText/A9A7AA39F78128BB86256AB700627702

It’s easy to see why: the total U.S. tax burden is equal to 56 percent of annual personal consumption spending. ⁴

4. Personal consumption spending from Bureau of Economic Analysis National Income and Product Accounts; Total tax burden from U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1999 (119^th Edition) Washington, DC, 1999.

[Your Nightmare]

Which is it? 36% or 25%?

Or maybe it's 12%. Could be 7.543%.

The truth is nobody knows. Some economist sets up a computer model and comes up with some number and it's about as accurate as me saying it's going to snow on October 10th.