>>"The feds are taking in an all time high, at a point where wages have not improved, manufacturing productivity measures are not impressive, inventories do not reflect growth patterns....and yet the government wants more. That is a fair assessment"

I see a big non sequitur. Unless you expect government to start controlling wages, productivity and inventories as well as levying tax.

The fair assessment I see is that the US has run deficits for a very long time and the resulting mountain now looms over everything. We've seen what any politician can expect if they propose connecting taxation to deficit: they're evil blood suckers. So there will be another deficit this year and the only presidential candidate with the courage to suggest that the tax take is insufficient to cover today's spending let alone starting to reduce the mountain left by previous tax shirkers, has received the usual reward from voters.

Never mind, one of the likely winners has a strategy to solve the problem: he plans to take, take, take from foreigners to make the US great again. Good idea: now that future generations of US citizens are overburdened, look overseas for somewhere else to dump US taxpayers' responsibilities.