Also, this country creates more millionaires and billionaires (not in Vietnamese dollars. If this is the case Viet Name has more millionaires since 100 US dollars = 1.7 Vietnamese dollars) than any countries in the world. In other words, the system, imperfect as it is, rewards success.
Who pay the middleclass' salaries? The rich and some small business. If you take too much money from the rich and small business owners, it will trickle down to the middleclass.
Mr. Obama wants to raise tax on people with income of $ 200,000 (later adjusted to $1,000,000 by the Democrats) or more. It happens that a lot of people in this income bracket happens to be small business owners. If you raise tax on the rich and small business owners (in a recession), you in a sense stifle economic growth as less jobs will be created.