Don, this is already happening to a large degree.

As I posted a couple of weeks ago on the "Taking a Stand Thread", 2/3 (two-thirds) of wage earners with incomes up to $50,000 already pay no Federal Income Tax. Over 69M earners across all income levels already pay no income tax. I also posted links or addresses to sites, one of which, CNN, is not by any stretch, a Conservative organization.   I invite you, and all, to check them out.

While I'm still not sure what you advocate, let's try it this way. First off, it does not matter where your threshold for paying any tax is. It could be $10,001.00 or 50,001.00, it works the same. So just for argument's sake let's assume the first $35,000 is not taxable, and the tax rate on all income above that...no exceptions or deductions...is 15% (a figure of 15-18% is often bandied about by flat tax advocates) such that:

If your income is $40K...$5000 taxable.. the tax is $750.
If your income is $85K...$50,000 taxable..the tax is $7500.
If your taxable income is $500,000, the tax is $75,000, and at taxable $5million the tax is a whopping $750,000!

But wait, some folks, here, think the wealthy should pay way more...maybe they shouldn't get the $35,000 exemption; maybe they should pay tax from dollar one. No matter their actual income, the tax on the now non-exempted $35,000 brings in $5250 per wealthy taxpayer. I'm not sure that would even bring in enough to build a mile of a interstate highway in total. And you no longer have your flat-rate tax structure, although it comes very, very close the more money earned.

But wait again, some folks feel that the wealthy should not only pay more actual tax, but they should pay a higher percentage rate as well. This brings us back to our progressive (both mathematically and politically) tax structure, so I ask, as I did two weeks ago, what amount of income should a person be allowed to retain?