Don't forget that in Germany your taxes pay for more services than in the US, like universal healthcare. Once you deduct out the cost of all the extra services that your taxes provide for you in Germany (and that they don't provide here), Germany wins. Healthcare is insanely expensive here in the US -- over $10k per person per year (so easily $20k per year for a family plan or more), some of which is born by employers.
The thing is that the taxes you pay in Germany don't pay for national defense - that's something that Germany gets for free by free-riding on US taxpayers. And the healthcare you get in socialized healthcare systems like the NHS or what they have in Germany is just barely sufficient - you could get the same deal in the U.S. by signing up with a HMO, and no one does because of how limiting it is. It's basically a wash, and the U.S., while worse at basic healthcare provision (due to pervasive regulatory capture in the whole system, which raises costs far higher than elsewhere) is still better at many other things.
Nope, we pay that on top, currently ~14% of your salary (half of which is paid directly by the employer), the same goes for pensions etc. You do get free healthcare only if you're unemployed, but that's not reality for most Germans.
