Income tax cuts for individuals in the US are implemented in two ways:
1) An adjustment in the percentage of tax due for certain wage brackets.
2) An adjustment to the threshold of exempt income (above which you are taxed).

Tax cuts in recent years have reduced the percentage due, and also raised the threshold of untaxed income. The poor benefit from the latter; the rich benefit from the former. In both instances the amount of net income available increases. In addition, the first round of tax cuts implemented by the Bush administration were followed by rebate checks - a flat amount per household. You can bet that made a much bigger difference to lower-income families than it did the rich.

Social Security taxes are a little different. There is an upper threshold of income on which SST are due; income above that amount is not taxed (the theory being that people above that line can help themselves). SST percentages have never been cut; the percentage has been raised over the years of the program, as well has the upper-level threshold. In effect, the rich are funding quite a bit of the program, with no guarantee that they will be able to benefit from it.

People in Holland may be ignorant of the tax rates levied against them, but people in the US pay great attention to both the rates AND the amount of net income they have available - you can count on that. We are reminded of it every time the cash register rings (since sales taxes are not hidden in the cost of what we buy) and then in total every April 15th.

>Again I conclude that your society is fixed and oversensitive to the word 'tax' and heavily debates taxes, but fails to realize that taxes are just a vehicle to define your netto income, distribution of wealth, and providing funds for your government to provide public services. And of course the rich don't want to educate you how it really works. Again I think you're beeing mislead by your government and esspecially by papers like this.

Those are pretty broad assumptions, based on the premise that Americans are ignorant of the world around them. Your depth of paranoia regarding our government is pretty amazing, considering that you put yourself forward as an educated person. Get a grip - the information on how taxation works and how the money is spent is available for anyone that cares to research it.