Of the 30 nations of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), which includes most of the prosperous industrialized nations of the world, the U.S. ranks 26th for overall tax burden. That number is calculated by taking all taxes paid as a percentage of GDP. (Graphic available here.)

This general ranking is nothing new. And it is a fact, which, as Ronald Reagan liked to say, are stubborn things.

The U.S. has long been among the lower taxers in the industrialized world. The four countries that have lower tax levels -- Japan, Korea, Turkey, and Mexico -- are hardly a good starting point for the argument that lower taxes are the key to prosperity.

Why mention this now? It's a fact, and an important one, that generally goes unmentioned in the perpetual arguments over how much government should tax and spend. Two, it's a counterpoint to the often hysterical warnings from Republican/conservative circles that the U.S. is one tiny tax hike away from Bolshevism.

Minnesota's own Michele Bachmann is a frequent purveyor of this hysteria, although she usually uses the terms "totalitarianism" and "socialism" to describe the direction in which liberals are dragging our overtaxed and overregulated nation.

The other day, I rudely mentioned an interview in which Rep. Bachmann made an unfortunate error (has she retracted/apologized for this one yet?) about which party controlled the White House during swine flu outbreaks. I didn't mention, but should have because it really is important to keep fact-checking Rep. Bachmann, that she also commented that average Americans now pay "a higher tax rate than was endured by medieval serfs." I do not believe she has yet specified the nation or the century in which serfs enjoyed more freedom than 21st century Americans.

The OECD does not do the comparison between 21st century Americans and medieval serfs, but it does compare the overall U.S. tax burden with the burden in other wealthy industrialized countries.