Yes, the withholding scheme allowed the government to bleed dry its nascent sharecroppers.
President BO inadvertently caused people to focus on that little trick when he allowed the payroll withholding to go up - it could prove to be his Waterloo.
Back in 98 when Lehrman and Bears Sterns exploded with a few banks right behind them till the camoflauge makers at the FED came in to prop them up with our money, I was certain there was going to be a bank holiday and pulled some cash out of the bank. I think I was a few years early and a few K too light on my ideas. Heading out tomorrow early to get my hands on what is left before it is gone too. Turn it around into hard assets as quick as I can too. The clock is ticking down to midnight on REV2...tick tick tick.
http://www.unz.org/Pub/CatoJournal-1995q3-00359
Evolution of Federal Income Tax Withholding - The Machinery of Institutional Change
by Charlotte Twight