Sticking to the facts on how we're taxed T.M. Sell [SNIP] The richest Americans do not pay 59 percent of total taxes, and nobody pays nothing. Every American pays consumption taxes, such as sales tax and excise taxes, and every working American pays what are called payroll taxes.... Those taxes take a higher chunk of poor people's income than rich people's, if only because the Social Security tax is applied only to the first $87,000 of each person's income. The personal income tax is called graduated, because the more you make, the more you pay. But the top rate is...