I can't access the USA Today article, sadly, but I can tell you how you got hoodwinked by the literal rich people think tank that is Taxfoundation, whose purpose is to try and fight taxation on the rich.

they obscure and heavily cherry-pick the datapoints they present, no, they actually did not state that "The top 50% of taxpayers pay in 97.7% of the total taxes in the US", they said that "The top 50% of Income taxpayers pay in 97.7% of the total taxes in the US", something that makes sense when you understand that almost half the nation earns below the poverty line and tax credits literally make them not have to pay taxes.

Secondly, it also completely ignores money you make outside income, stuff like the whole unrealized gains backing functionally zero interest loans, meaning that the wealthy aren't even on that list to begin with

also, coded language doesn't have anything to do with reality, that's why it's coded language, people seldom speak what they mean, especially those tasked with sellin' you their snake oil.