The effective income tax rate of the top 1% is well below what the middle-class pays. Why should middle-class people pay higher income tax rates than wealthy people?
The bottom line is that everyone has to pay taxes, so which system is better, a regressive one, like the one we have now, where the wealthier you become, the less income tax you pay, or a progressive one, where the poorer you are, the less income tax you pay? We know by looking at history that effective income tax rates don't correlate with economic growth, so when the very wealthy pay more taxes, it doesn't negatively affect the rate of unemployment. We know that the most effective way to grow the economy is through having a strong middle-class. And we know that providing social safety net programs that help the disadvantaged and unfortunate does positively correlate to economic growth because able bodies earn money and circulate it throughout the economy.
Knowing the combination of these things gives us a successful recipe for a solution. Understanding what got us into the Great Depression and what got us out of it provides the necessary framework for progress. What led to the economic situations of 1929 and 2007 have many things in common, and by that measure, they will take similar solutions. If we don't do something now when we can, we won't have the option to when people decide to take things into their own hands later. If FDR didn't finance the recovery by shifting the tax burden onto the people who could pay for it, the people would have, and it wouldn't have been pretty, and that's the same thing that will happen to this government if they choose to do nothing or choose to do the wrong thing.