Every time that a progressive uses the term "fair" it's an excuse to take something from someone else.
Progressives like Barack Obama would have you believe that the fiscal issues we face can be fixed simply by taxing wealthy people at a higher rate. The truth is even if we taxed the wealthy at a 100% we STILL wouldn't be able to support the entitlements we're obligated to pay. So don't kid yourself into thinking that someone ELSE is going to be picking up the tab for our out of control spending...those entitlements will be paid for by the middle class as well.
I'm a liberal (progressive, whatever), so let me address this.
We pay taxes so our government can do good things. Oversimplified? Yes, but still true. It's sort of like a membership fee to belong to the USA. Therefore, it's not an excuse to take something from someone else; it's to pay for what the government should be doing.
How much should we have to pay for the government to do their thing? Liberals say look to the impact taxes have on families. The rich can pay much more than the poor because they can afford it without much significant impact. Of course there's an impact, but $5K from the poor means they will go hungry; $5K from the rich means they can't buy as fancy a car they want. Therefore, taxing the rich higher than the poor is fair because the impact should be similar.
What conservatives often fail to remember is the Laffer Curve is bell-shaped. Tax too much like we did in the 60s and you actually cut into government revenue because there's much less economic activity to collect from. But the opposite is also true; tax too little and you cut into government revenue. Obama's proposal to increase taxes on the top 2% is an attempt to bring more balance to the current Laffer Curve, not to magically save the government forever or what have you.