Posted on 04/25/2016 8:41:36 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” – The 16th Amendment, Ratified 1913
The birth of the income tax! Prior to 1913, the constitutionally limited responsibilities of the federal government were generally covered by import tariffs. Occasionally, temporary taxes were imposed to pay for wars, but were to be apportioned by the states and could not be direct, personal taxes, according to the Constitution in Article I, sections 2 and 9. W. Cleon Skousen wrote a very informative and entertaining “History of the 16th Amendment”.
Skousen begins, “Strange as it may seem, the Sixteenth Amendment (which gave the American people the affliction of confiscatory income taxes) was never supposed to have passed. It was introduced by the Republicans as part of a political scheme to trick the Democrats, but it backfired.”
Our Founding Fathers, having just rebelled against England because of imposed taxes, were not supporters by any means of a federal tax unless it was apportioned by population so the small states wouldn’t have the same burdens as the bigger states. This was one of the biggest bones of contention in the formation of our government.
The 16th Amendment and the debates regarding it are what spawned the class envy sentiment of “soak the rich,” still present today. Mr. Skousen writes, “In April 1909, Sen. Joseph Bailey, a conservative Democrat from Texas who was opposed to income taxes, decided to embarrass the Republicans by forcing them to openly oppose an income tax bill similar to those which had been introduced in the past – and always shot down by the conservative Republicans (which is how they got labeled “the party of the rich”). He introduced his...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
1943, FDR changed the collection process, creating “withholding from wages and salaries.” Withholding was collected from payrolls before it was even due to be paid by the taxpayer, shifting the tax from its original design as a tax on the wealthy to the masses.
We Called it “ The Victory TAX”
also see “Taxes for revenue are obsolete”
Nixon?
No not Nixon
Before Nixon. I meant to take that out.
Nixon started the “War On Drugs”
Which is just as bad as the income tax if you ask me.
What do you mean by Nixon? The income tax was implemented decades before his term in office.
There was a federal income tax during the Civil War.
A federal income tax was impractical in the years prior to 1913 because the rich were mainly in large Northeastern cities and there was no way the people in a poor state like Alabama could pay the same average amount as the citizens of New York State.
The tariff wasn’t producing the desired amount of revenue because US industry was world beating a century ago.
Yeah, I meant to take the reference to Nixon out.
Friedman would never have endorsed the kind of “free trade” we have now, where domestic industries are hobbled by regulation and practically forced, in some cases, to ship production overseas. “Free trade” is only free if the regulatory environment is equitable between nations.
Don’t buy the propaganda.
The regulations are not that extensive. It’s the wage differentials that drive the off-shoring.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
Low-information rich people probably do not understand the following. Corrupt federal lawmakers essentially laugh all the way to the bank to deposit the bribes that rich people give them to put loopholes in appropriations bills that benefit the rich, rich people clueless to the idea that the feds don’t have the Section 8 authority to make prabably most of appropriations bills that they do in the first place.
Nixon was three weeks old when the 16th Amendment was ratified. He probably did not have much to do with it.
No going back to edit on FR. It's like gunfighting: once you pull the trigger, it's forever. d;^)
I know, and it’s not like people read the thread looking for corrections either. You pull that gun, you’re riddled with bullets from every gunfighter that walls onto main street for days.
Okay I knew it was a flub. Poor Nixon, he gets blamed for everything!
I don’t know why Nixon popped into my mind. I knew it was wrong. I went looking for the story to get it right, but then once I had the link, I forgot to change it.
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