Posted on 09/23/2017 10:06:15 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
Far too often, articles or books are written about how bad the 16th amendment is(which it absolutely is) but then the authors turn around and point to Woodrow Wilson. This is historical malpractice. It is said that 42 states ratified the 16th amendment, and 40 of those did so prior to March 4, 1913, which was when Wilson was inaugurated. Massachusetts ratified the 16th on the same day, March 4th, and New Hampshire followed a few days later on March 7th.
So let me get this straight: Woodrow Wilson as president was so strong and powerful that he reached back in his time machine and got all 40 of those states to ratify, before his inauguration. Do I have that about right?
So how is it that so many conservatives get this so wrong?
It's because the amendment was finalized in 1913, in part. How vacuous is that? Its easy to point to the year and dissemble about the rest.
The real reason why, I suspect, is because any amount of research leads to Theodore Roosevelt. You don't even have to scratch the surface with anything more tough than a piece of balsa wood and TR's name comes popping out. There are a lot of people who want to do something about progressivism, but they become ardent progressivism defenders once the facts get presented and TR's duplicity is proven. This one guy for whatever reason, he has a license for big government that's granted to him by constitutionalists. It's the strangest contradiction.
Well, let's get to the history. There were two efforts to get an income tax within a roughly 10 year period, but the first one failed in a court case so I will primarily focus on the second.
With the failure of the first income tax in the 1895 Pollock case, the progressives let a little time pass so as to let people get lulled back to sleep. The progressives will often times do that - they never give up on their ideas because of course progressivism is perfect, they'll just come back again later when you are convinced it is over. Following that 12 year period of time, the first time Roosevelt talked about the income tax that I am aware of was in his 1907 State of the Union address. That's not an obscure speech. He said:
When our tax laws are revised the question of an income tax and an inheritance tax should receive the careful attention of our legislators. In my judgment both of these taxes should be part of our system of Federal taxation.
Interesting. Not only did TR support the income tax, but I just learned something brand new today. Theodore Roosevelt also supported the death tax. I'll leave that one for another day.
Theodore Roosevelt's presidency concluded in 1908, and his hand picked successor William Howard Taft, continued TR's drive for the income tax by giving a major speech in 1909 which kicked off the move for the 16th amendment. After that, the states started their ratifications in the second half of 1909. During the 1912 presidential campaign and while the states were still individually ratifying the amendment, Roosevelt repeatedly spoke in support for the income tax.
The two most notable moments during the campaign (likely) were the inclusion of the graduated tax in the 1912 progressive party platform, Roosevelt's party, and in what is most likely Roosevelt's best known and perhaps important speech: The New Nationalism.(1912)
So, the point is this: History and the facts force us to blame progressive republicans for the 16th amendment in general and Theodore Roosevelt in particular. He was the first president to push for it, the first former president to push for it, the first presidential candidate to push for it, and it was his hand picked successor who got the ball rolling in congress. Wilson, a guy who doubled down on nearly all of Roosevelt's big government proposals and policies, came into office four days after the entire multi-year cause(1907-1913) would come to a successful end.
Four days. Yeah, it's clearly Wilson's fault. There's no love lost for Wilson around here, check my archives. But we have GOT to get the history correct. Wilson does not own this one, Theodore Roosevelt is to blame for the 16th amendment and the income tax.
TR, Herbert Croly, Jane Addams, Hiram Johnson, Gifford Pinchot, Alf Landon...... these and many more, they were all registered republicans. Active and in many cases elected progressive republicans.
Ping.....
In sum, the progressive duopoly is old, and if they don’t convince you with a “Liberal” argument they’ll switch and try to convince you with a more conservative argument. Both sides are for big government, Congressional abdication of legislative authority to the permanent regulatory state and expansion of that permanent regulatory state to some eventual point where all Congress will have to do is meet to approve (rubber stamp) the federal state’s budget and then go home. Most all Conservatives see this but RINOS and Democrat progressives in Congress do not, because the permanent regulatory state is enshrined and tasked with the power they gave it and want it to have.
The early income tax only applied to a very small percentage of Americans, the very highest income people. So, it was easy to get the majority of voters to support it. The same class warfare that we see to this day.
Good of you to remind Freepers of that history. Thanks.
TR is not high on current Conservatives history recall, except to point to McPain’s similarities with him.
Didn’t Prohibition make the income tax kick in heavily? Alcohol was almost 40% of the government income. That was Wilson.
A lot happened around that time period. The federal reserve also was created in 1913, and communism/socialism was in its upswing...
Coincidence?
You do have a valid point. I thought that maybe those last states only ratified because Wilson Democrats won the state legislatures or because Roosevelt split the Republicans, but it looks like they amendment was headed for ratification.
If all four candidates for president support something, though, odds are it's probably something people want (however misguided they may be). The "spirit of the age" was progressive. Also, people didn't realize that they'd be taxing themselves.
Roosevelt got caught up in that spirit of the age himself.
Taft pushed for the Constitutional Amendment because he worried that there would be attempts to enact a direct tax without constitutional authority. His logic was that if the tax was coming, and he felt it was(the tariff was very unpopular at that point), it ought to be enacted legally.
That’s how progressives like Taft do it though.
What if the tax would’ve been enacted illegally? Then the enemies of progressivism could potentially have more likely gotten rid of it.
But because they did it the correct way, look at how nearly impossible it will ever be to get rid of.
You might consider that Taft’s demand for a constitutional amendment upheld constitutionalism rather than promoting progressivism. To assume the Courts will rule something unconstitutional can lead to a rather tenuous track, as we well know. Taft’s position was clear: if you want a direct tax, amend the Constitution. I can’t fault that position.
Taft was consistent in his views on the Constitution, which he upheld against the vicious opposition of TR and the progressives throughout the Taft administration and during the 1912 election, especially. The survival of the Republican party through this period was thanks to Taft, simply.
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