Wikipedia isn't an authoritative source for any thing whatsoever.
Americans at one time paid no direct taxes to the government and the country got along quite well doing what it was instituted to do. It was only when the banksters got ahold of our "elected leaders" that we were put on the road to global Socialism; with the inextricable, extravagant cost of such experimentation to go with it. A nation of borrowers cannot sustain itself and will implode of its own accord soon enough regardless of how much wealth is confiscated from the people. Some TeaParty participants will welcome such a result, some will hope to delay that end, but all with their eyes and ears open will rue the day the banksters gained control of our country in order to destroy it.