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Is it true that Americans hate paying tax? Owen Bennett-Jones explores the reasons why there appears to be such widespread and fierce resistance to taxation in America.

At the end of 2012, the nation faces the 'fiscal cliff'. Unless politicians agree to a new deal there will be massive automatic reductions in government spending plus the expiration of tax cuts. Most economists agree that this would be a dire outcome.

Coincidentally 2013 sees the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax.

The background to this deadlock is a ferocious opposition among much of the population and the political class to any form of tax increase. Which is perhaps strange, as the US takes almost the lowest share of GDP in taxes of any developed nation. By international standards, Americans are not overtaxed. And yet they believe that they are. Which is why lobby groups like Americans for Tax Reform led by Grover Norquist have become so powerful. But now there are signs of change. With the fiscal cliff approaching, and the next elections two years away, some senior Republicans have done the unthinkable and raised the possibility of tax increases.

So how have we got here? And will things really change? Owen Bennett-Jones takes a booth in a diner in New York City to address these questions with three expert commentators - tax historian Professor Joseph Thorndike, Dow Jones economics writer Kathleen Madigan and Michael Lind of the New America Foundation. They will be discussing comments made by Grover Norquist and others.

(Image: A woman holds a sign that reads 'Born free, taxed to death', Credit: AFP/Getty Images)