For centuries, a battle has raged in the United States over the issue of which Americans should bear the brunt of paying taxes to maintain public services. Although the advent of the federal income tax shifted much of the burden to those with the greatest wealth (and therefore the greatest ability to pay), in recent decades wealthy Americans and their corporations have managed to subvert progressive taxation and, in a growing number of cases, to evade taxation entirely. As a result, campaigns to enact tax-the-rich legislation are flourishing in numerous states and in Congress.