Who's paying taxes and why

Democrat demagogues are on the march these days, led by the head demagogue himself, Obama.  Their subject?  The old standby of raising taxes on the rich.  Why these people keep beating this drum is difficult to comprehend inasmuch as the evidence suggests that a) it wouldn't make that much difference in solving the debt problem and balancing the budget, and b) whenever tried in the past this policy has not worked.  Here is a post by an economist/blogger who has done his homework and provides a revealing graph and the facts (heaven forbid) that prove that this policy prescription can't solve a), and with respect to b), demonstrates that lowering rates on the rich actually increases the taxes they pay.  A key sentence in this post reads:

"In 1979 the top marginal income tax rate was 70% and 18.3% of the total taxes paid were collected from the top 1% of taxpayers.  By 2007 the top tax rate was 35% (half of the 1979 rate), and the tax share of the top 1% had more than doubled to 39.5% (from 18.3% in 1979."

Don't imagine that Obama and co. will be deterred by this graph and these facts, however.  They will march in lockstep, pillorying the successful producers, until they find a way to push the economy over the cliff.  At which point, we assume, they will reconstruct it into a more fair, equitable and just system where wealth is spread around more evenly and we get an economy more like......Cuba's?  Maybe not Cuba's, but how about Europe's where they've "enjoyed" almost no significant growth for several decades, persistent 10% unemployment rates, and where the population is declining as a result.