in 2009 51 percent of "taxpayers" paid no income tax or had a refundable credit

If you want evidence that the current tax system is unfair, go here. How about this article from The Hill newspaper.

The new data cited by the GOP committee members came from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which forecasted that roughly 51 percent of taxpayers had zero federal income tax liability or had received a refundable credit in the 2009 tax year.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the panel’s ranking member, also cited a 2008 study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that said that the U.S. had a more progressive tax system than other industrialized countries. (That study also said that income inequality had been rapidly increasing in the U.S.)

With all that data in mind, Republicans and some of the witnesses at the hearing called for every taxpayer to contribute at least something in income tax — to put some “skin in the game,” as some at the hearing put it.

“It’s an essential part of citizenship to be invested in this nation. And I think paying income taxes is one key to that,” said Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation. . . .