Okay, so this is my first post, precipitated by my growing anger at our "progressive" (is it just me, or is it somewhat Orwellian to call it progressive when it's really regressive?) tax system. 

I have been poor or close to poor most of my life.  It wasn't until I went to college at the age of 39 that my economic situation started to improve.  I'm making a pretty good income right now, but I would not characterize myself as being "rich".  

I've been at my job for about two years.  The job I had before paid me less than half of what I am making now and what is really bringing the tax issue to a head for me is the difference in my pay after taxes.  You would think that if you double your income, your take home pay would double.  I'm all too aware that the increase would not be double due to the tax system, but the difference in my paycheck absolutely shocked me.  A 100% increase in pay didn't result in a 100% increase in take-home pay, nor even a 50% increase.  It was just 25%.  So because I started making more money,  I literally gave the government a 75% raise!  This is insane!

I get angry when I hear that the middle class includes people earning $25,000 - $90,000 and what I am making is above that, making me one of the "rich" that the Democrats are always wanting to soak.  They already soak me enough!  There was an article online about the middle class crunch, blaming everything except taxes for the reason that people were not able to get ahead.  If we were allowed to keep more of what we have, there would be no middle class crunch.  Since I started late in making a decent income and I've had to catch up on getting out of debt from all the years that I had a low income, I have barely made a dent in acquiring enough money to retire on.  In fact, I don't see myself retiring at all.  If I could keep more of my income, I would have a chance to fix that.  What is the point of trying to succeed if the government is the only one to benefit from it?

It's very discouraging, to say the least.