I think the American beef with taxes/government comes from the American reluctance to give the government credit for anything. The recent Craig T Nelson rant summed it up quite nicely (when whining about government spending: "I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No.")
The general sense I get is that Americans and Europeans look at taxes from very different perspectives. I'm going to paint with a dangerously broad brush here, but I think it's worth saying. Europeans tend to focus more on what they get out of the government than what they put into it, while Americans tend to focus on what they put into the government instead of what they get out of it. In other words, when Europeans think of government, the first thing they think of are the social programs that the government gives them. The high taxes they have to pay are a secondary issue. Meanwhile, when Americans think of government, the first thing they think of is how much money they're paying the government. We tend to forget about government services that help us out, like Mr. Nelson's food stamps and welfare.
Of course, that isn't true for all Americans and Europeans, but I think the general trend is there.
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