"The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied (emphasis added). … Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811.
But since there no way that the rich can presently afford to pay for Congress's irresponsible spending, it would be up to the rich to do the following. The rich would have to police Congress to make sure that Congress complies with Justice John Marshall's official clarification that Congress is prohibited from spending tax dollars on anything that it cannot justify under its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers and other constitutionally mandated expenses.
"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.
Since “the rich” are no longer the only people who use imported articles, what Jefferson concluded from that fact is no longer necessarily true.
I am for the FAIR Tax. It would “penalize” “the rich” by taxing only NEW consumer goods.