The lead paragraph in this Reuters story is likely to make you angry:

More than 2,000 individuals with incomes of $200,000 or more paid zero in federal income taxes in the year 2000, according to a report released by the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday.

But the end of the story points out something that strikes me as far more worrisome -- just how much of the income of fat cats is from capital gains rather than wages and salaries (nearly two-thirds!):

Of $69.57 billion in adjusted gross income reported by the top 400 filers in 2000, about $44.53 billion was made through capital gains, [Len] Burman [of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center] said.

"Capital gains is the linchpin of every tax shelter I know of, except for municipal bonds," he said.

Capital gains are generally taxed at a lower rate than wages for all but low-income taxpayers. With the tax package passed in May, the rate will fall to 15 percent.

And, of course, Republicans desperately want to eliminate the capital-gains tax altogether. If that happens, just imagine how much richer the rich are suddenly going to get.