I'm seriously considering voting for Obama...

That figure is so high because of the unbelievably immense amount of wealth owned by the top 1%. The top 1% percent own from 40% to 47% of the wealth in America over the last 25 years. It in no way reflects upon what the individuals among that group pay as a portion of their income. Due to the the tax cuts for the wealthy, offshore tax havens, tax credits, and other legal tax evasions, most end up paying a smaller percentage of their taxes than most middle class taxpayers making from $50K to $250K.

 

Factcheck.com has debunked this McCain claim

 

El REDbo is right. "We must not allow the rich to evade taxes".

 

TAX CUTS: The tax cuts on capitol gains and dividends technically are available to everyone, but the field isn't level. For most middle class taxpayers, the bulk of their income is from their salaries, which they pay the highest taxes on. Oh, many of us have some modest dividends and capital gains that get taxed at a lower rate. But people making $1 Million or more annually (The top-1%) make a much larger portion of their income from dividends and capital gains, the richest make MOST of their money from this income. They get a huge reduction in their total taxes because of this. It allows them to pay percentages of their income that are lower than the middle class. This is the major reason that they are pulling away from the rest of us. Silly us. There is inherent unfairness here.

TAX HAVENS: The Cayman Islands, Nauru, The Isle of Man, Liechtenstein, and dozens of other small countries offer low taxes on income from interest as low as 5%. Globally, estimates of the total funds parked by individuals in offshore havens vary from $7 Trillion to $12 Trillion. The banks and companies that hold this money often have huge minimum deposits than ordinary citizens cannot hope to meet. Moving this money legally also involves hiring international bankers, lawyers, and accountants well beyond affordability for a middle-class taxpayer. There is inherent unfairness here.

TAX CREDITS: I contribute around $1,000 a year to legitimate non-profits organizations like the Boy Scouts, Disabled American Veterans, United Way and such. I get a couple of hundred dollars in tax credit.

Joe Billionaire contributes $10 Million dollars to the charity of his choice. He gets hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax credits that reduce his total taxes to zero sometimes, which is why the AMT was instituted. I can afford to take a chip off my tax bill and still have money to live on and to invest. He can afford to practically eliminate his tax bill, live lavishly and have vast wealth to invest.

But in addition to the tax credit that we both receive. Joe B gets a huge amount of influence with his non-profit organization. He gets appionted to the board, has hospitals named after him, gets to decide how the money is spent, and can direct it to direction that earn him brownie points with politicians, relatives, neighbors, and friends. There is inherent unfairness here.