One thing I don't get is why people believe "the rich" should pay more? It's not their fault they have money. Not in all cases, but a lot of cases, those with money worked very hard to get it. They should not be disproportionally penalized because they earn more to subsidize everyone else. The reason why this country is in debt wasn't because the rich people in this country earned wealth - there were other policies put in place which led to this, but in order to fix it you place a burden on the rich? Makes no sense. All that will do in theory is take away incentive to work hard and go beyond in order to do more when they will just penalize you for it. It's a large reason why you see a lot of practices going out of business due to constraints on insurance, malpractice...Why earn more when you could just coast and not have the stress of being a doctor and you get better tax rates?
There should be a flat tax rate to everyone, regardless of your income (which the rich will technically still end up paying more dollars since they are coming from a larger pool of money). That is the only fair way IMO.
We see Mitt flip flopping during his debates - however, we have seen Obama completely lie and flip flop and make this country worse off as an actual President. So it's tough to say what's worse down the road.