This is not a rich-hating thing. The wealthy can afford to pay more.

Really? How much more? What I do not understand is how you can believe that, in a free society, if you want to work 18 hours a day to accumulate wealth, that the governemnt should be able to say "We are taking more away from you because you already have too much.

The crux of it is I do not believe we should as a matter of policy redistribute wealth from the middle class to the already wealthy.

Ah, but you think that it is fine to redistribute wealth from the middle class to the poor (and/or lazy). You make this kind of statement quite often but with nothing to back it up. Please provide evidence that wealth is being redistributed from the middle class to the wealthy.

You also have not addressed my statement that everyone should pay some federal income tax. Do you think that it is fair that almost 50% of the population does not pay anything?