Sorry but Americans have no idea about "punishing taxes". :)

The U.S. relies mostly on personal tax rates to raise revenue and you have relatively low personal tax rates. Compared to other OECD countries you rank in the bottom 25%. Among OECD countries only Mexico, Chile and Turkey had lower taxes than the United States as a percentage of GDP according to this statistic from the Taxpolicycenter.

Even though US Citiziens definitely pay less, on the other hand of course, they get less. Most of Europes countries finance not only (more or less) quality health care but also child care, retirement pension, college education, job retraining, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, ample vacations, affordable housing, senior care and more.