There's a faction of US politicians that are philosophically against (most) government and taxes. It's not about ROI, it's about their goals.
Freedom isn't an idea. It's an actual place. In terms of kingdoms a free peoples kingdom is a Freedom; and you don't have to pay someone for the right to exist.
Oddly enough we agree, there is a faction in the US pursuing its own agenda.
Care to explain? The most recent tax cuts that were supposed to pay for themselves haven't. So where are we on the Laffer Curve right now?
You might have more success looking at the amounts while attempting to control for more factors; but of course, you could make it worse, because statistics is hard!
I think a lot of people look at the gap between the mean and median, and think that something must be going wrong; but to me, the inequality of outcome this measures is more a sign that America is a welcome home of extremely productive people and the smarter of their direct offspring, who inevitably earn ridiculous sums of money when and where doing so is not itself reviled.
If you are earning a median wage a lot of other countries have comparable tax rates. If you are earning minimum wage a lot of other countries have lower tax rates.
On the whole, I think the tax rate is the main difference between the US and most of industrialized countries, and net immigration is hugely positive for the US.