The point made was that companies, ultimately, do not pay taxes.

With which I agree entirely.

This seems especially heinous to me in a world where companies then receive the tax breaks they do.

I am not a fan of any of them, although I do acknowledge that in some circumstances (oil companies being one of them) that you need some sort of tax break to level the playing field between our private companies and the nationally-owned companies they compete with.

Other than those circumstances, I’d like to wipe out all tax breaks altogether. Why, for example, is Starbucks classified as a manufacturer and not a restaurant? Well, it’s because Cantwell and Murray went to the mat to make that happen, so Starbucks could get preferential tax treatment given to manufacturers.

Therefore, why not eliminate corporate tax altogether, let prices come down, and increase the sales tax to collect those revenues from the people who choose freely to buy those goods and services?

Fine with me.

The current tax burden is most severe on the poorest members of society.

Debatable. The poorest in this nation actually pay a negative interest rate. We are unique in the world in using our income tax system as a welfare program.

Around 45% of the people in the US pay no income taxes, and then our tax rates on the middle class are by far the lowest in the developed world.

Tax the individuals who benefit most from our national infrastructure and services like the police at a commensurate rate rather than their companies. Allow the company to benefit openly from its commerce and then ask the private citizen who profits most from it to put something back into society.

Problem is that they already do.

In short, one cannot look at the average person and look at the “average” millionaire/billionaire and claim sincerely that the latter worked that much harder or was that much smarter than the former. It’s not simply true.

Sure you can. It all depends on how you define “hard work” and “smart”.