>I have an extremely ignorant question--so be nice...but I
>often hear claims that the "rich" never really pay taxes to
>begin with and that any taxes they do have to pay are
>simply added to the cost to the consumer?
You could make that argument about corporate taxes, but I doubt the corps would spend all that money on lobbyists if they could pass it all along. The CBO used to assume that corporate taxes were split between capital and labor (i.e., in the form of lower wages); dunno if they still do. Rich individuals most certainly can't pass along their taxes, otherwise they wouldn't whine so much.
Doug