Amid complaints about high taxes and calls for a smaller
government, Americans paid their lowest level of taxes last year
since Harry Truman's presidency, a USA TODAY analysis of federal
data found.The USA Today analysis is interesting but misses a
lot of tax payments and other payments to the government. Some
political conservatives such as "Tea Party" activists have
criticized federal spending as being out of control. While
spending is up, taxes have fallen to exceptionally low levels.
Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property,
sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in
2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic
Analysis (BEA) reports. That rate is far below the historic
average of 12% for the past half-century. The overall tax burden
hit bottom in December at 8.8% of income before rising slightly
in the first three months of 2010. USA Today obtains its tax
percentage by dividing "personal current taxes" paid to
different levels of government ($1.1025 tri