This is a chart from an Investors.com article posted Friday:

The chart shows the percentage of Americans who pay NO federal income tax. That number has nearly doubled in the past ten years.

The article points out:

As CNBC reporter Robert Frank put it, the top 1% that Obama complains about “paid an average effective tax rate of 28.9% on their income — far more than any other group, and more than twice the average effective rate of the middle class, who paid 11% on average.”

Beyond that, however, is the fact that more Americans who are nowhere near to being rich are paying no taxes at all on the money they take in — which means they have no interest in getting our ever-expanding government leviathan under control.

Obviously, people who pay no taxes have no interest in shrinking government or decreasing the tax burden on those of us who do pay taxes. Unfortunately, many of our Congressmen on both sides of the aisle realize that shrinking government will shrink their power, and thus have no interest in decreasing the tax burden or shrinking the size of government. That fact is the reason the Tea Party exists. You may not agree with what the Tea Party stands for (government in line with the principles of the US Constitution, smaller government, lower taxes, etc.), but Tea Party Congressmen have not supported the status quo of big government that both political parties seem to espouse. It is obvious that most Democrats are in opposition to Tea Party principles, but it is less apparent that many Republicans are also working against the Tea Party. I believe that if the Republican party does not begin to support Tea Party principles, it will mean the end of the Republican Party–not the end of the Tea Party.

The article at Investors.com points out who is not paying taxes:

A new study from the Tax Foundation found the number of those filing tax returns who pay no income taxes now numbers over 58 million, amounting to a staggering 41% of all tax returns. Compare that with 1990, when only about 21% of tax returns were found to have no tax liability.

What’s more, the median income of these nonpayers has increased by 40% in just nine years. “The threshold at which a typical married couple with two children will likely be a nonpayer is now $47,000,” the Tax Foundation found.

This is fairness??!!