How Much Does Government Tax 

On Their People

Most people in America understand that, to fix our massive debt-and-deficit problem, we're going to have to raise taxes and cut spending.

Raise taxes AND cut spending. Not one or the other.

But some people insist that the problem can be fixed by just raising taxes or just cutting spending.

Most folks in the latter group gripe about how taxes are already too high. But they aren't.

At least not relative to other countries in the world that are considered first-world countries.

In 2009, total US tax revenue came to just over 20% of GDP.

How did that compare to other countries?

Well, it put us ahead of Chile and Mexico: