U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine is either a liar or pathetically ignorant on tax reform!

SEE: Bridenstine: Repeal the 16th Amendment

”U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which allows the federal government to levy the income tax.”

Wrong Mr. Bridenstien! The 16th Amendment does not allow the federal government to levy an “income tax”. In fact, the phrase “income tax” does not even appear in the 16th Amendment, and the power to levy an income tax was exercised long before the 16th Amendment was adopted!

The first so called “income tax” is found in An Act to provide increased Revenue from Imports, to pay interest on the Public Debt, and for other Purposes. The phrase “income tax” is found in the margin dealing with Section 49 of the Act. SECTION 49 of the Act reads as follows:

Sec. 49. And be it further enacted, That on and after the first day of January next, there shall be levied, collected, and paid upon the annual income of every person residing in the United States, whether such income is derived from any kind of property, or from any profession, trade, employment or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever, if such annual income exceeds the sum of eight hundred dollars, a tax of three percentum on the amount of such excess over eight hundred dollars...

This “income tax” was later tested in the Supreme Court and was upheld as being constitutional in SPRINGER v. U S, 102 U.S. 586 (1880). Among other arguments, the argument that the tax was direct and required an apportionment was rejected by the Court.

So tell us Mr. Bridenstine, why do you allege the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows the “… federal government to levy the income tax.”?

Rep. Bridenstine also says: “The income tax code has become too complex for citizens to understand, and the annual time and expense required to comply with the income tax code has become intolerably burdensome,” Bridenstine said. “Furthermore, the income tax is inherently unfair with different tax rates applying to various taxpayers. The tax code is subject to endless manipulation by groups seeking to advantage themselves relative to others. Worse, the Internal Revenue Service which administers the income tax, has been used as a political weapon to suppress First Amendment rights and influence elections.”

Well Rep. Bridenstine, then why do you not change the wording of H.J.RES. 104 in such a manner so it would actually withdraw Congress’ power to levy any taxes calculated from profits, gains and other incomes, an example would be:

House/Senate Joint Resolution

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the sixteenth article of amendment and end taxes calculated from profits, gains, salaries and other “incomes”.

Section 1: The sixteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2: Congress is henceforth forbidden to lay ``any`` tax or burden calculated from profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips, inheritances or any other lawfully realized money.

Section 3: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by three fourths of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission thereof to the States by the Congress.

JWK

Reaching across the aisle and bipartisanship is Washington Newspeak to subvert the Constitution and screw the American People.

You are absolutely correct about the envy of the rich and where it leads.

During the debates to adopt the 16th Amendment we find Mr. HEFLIN agitating the working class people into supporting the amendment by saying “An income tax seeks to reach the unearned wealth of the country and to make it pay its share.” 44 Cong. Rec. 4420 (1909). Note the wording “unearned wealth“ as distinguished from earned wages.

And this was shortly after Mr. BARTLETT of Georgia had begun the class warfare attack by preaching to the working poor: As I see it, the fairest of all taxes is of this nature [a tax on gains, profits and unearned income], laid according to wealth, and its universal adoption would be a benign blessing to mankind. The door is shut against it, and the people must continue to groan beneath the burdens of tariff taxes and robbery under the guise of law.” 44 Cong. Rec. 4414 (1909). NOTE the words “unearned income” as apposed to “earned income“.

But what these cunning progressive con artists really had in mind was to create a tax allowing the expansion of the federal government’s manipulative iron fist which would eventually be used to squeeze the working people’s earned wages from their pockets in a more devastating manner than any tariff has ever done, and make them dependent upon government for their subsistence! But they cleverly waited for one generation to pass after the adoption of the 16th Amendment and a war to begin before completing their mission which was the Temporary Victory Tax of 1942

This tax un-constitutionally expanded the “income tax” upon corporations and businesses to include a 5 percent temporary tax upon working people’s “earned wages“. And although the 16th Amendment was sold as a way to tax “unearned income” as apposed to “earned income“, the temporary tax on working people’s earned wages was sold as a patriotic necessity in the war effort ___ not letting a crisis go to waste! But somehow Roosevelt’s class warfare tax, which robs the bread working people have earned by the sweat of their brow, is still to this very day being collected and provides the vehicle by which class warfare is carried out through “progressive taxation” imposed upon the working persons earned wages.

Bottom line is, I believe our founding fathers got the taxing system correct and the class warfare crap carried out through current income taxation will only end when the American People rise up and demand our elected public servants add the following 32 words to our Constitution:

The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby repealed and Congress is henceforth forbidden to lay ``any`` tax or burden calculated from profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips, inheritances or any other lawfully realized money. These words would return us to our founding father’s ORIGINAL TAX PLAN as they intended it to operate! And, the words would end the class warfare which is encouraged under income taxation.

JWK

"To lay with one hand the power of the government on the property of the citizen and with the other to bestow upon favored individuals, to aid private enterprises and build up private fortunes [Obama’s Solyndra/Chevy Volt/Fisker, Exelon, etc., swindling deals] is none the less a robbery because it is done under forms of law and called taxation." ____ Savings and Loan Assc. v. Topeka,(1875).

I believe that you are misrepresenting by ommission. Here is the accurate story:

Because an income tax was declared unconstitutional before the adoption of the 16th Amendment in a case called Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co., 157 U.S. 429 (1894), on reh’g 158 U.S. 601 (1895), and because the 16th Amendment conferred no new power of taxation, protestors conclude that the income tax must still be unconstitutional.

So the answer to your questions is: No, it would not. But it is misleading not to point out that because the apportionment requirement would then be revived, the present tax system would become unconstitutional.

This conclusion is false. The short answer is that, while the Supreme Court did hold that the 16th Amendment conferred no new power of taxation, the amendment relieved the pre-existing power to tax incomes from the constitutional requirement of apportionment. Therefore, the previous problem with the income tax was removed and the income tax is now constitutional.

Here's some more detail:

Congress's power to "lay and collect taxes" is given in Article I, section 8 of the Constitution. This power, given in the original Constitution, included the power to lay and collect income taxes. In Brushaber, one of the very cases the protestors love to quote, the Supreme Court said that the power to impose income taxes was "an authority already possessed and never questioned." Brushaber v. Union Pac. R. Co., 240 U.S. 1, 17 (1916).

But, according to the Pollock case, certain income taxes were subject to another provision of the original Constitution that required "direct taxes" to be apportioned among the states according to the census.

The Sixteenth Amendment overruled the Pollock case. As the Supreme Court said in Brushaber, "the Amendment was drawn for the purpose of doing away for the future with the principle upon which the Pollock Case was decided". The Amendment, the Court said, "provides that income taxes, from whatever source the income may be derived, shall not be subject to the regulation of apportionment."

Thus, the Sixteenth Amendment gives no new power to tax incomes, because that power always existed, but it relieves the pre-existing power from the requirement of apportionment. Income taxes are now constitutional because they are no longer subject to the apportionment requirement.

That is the true meaning of the statement that the Sixteenth Amendment gives "no new power of taxation." That statement does not show the income tax to be unconstitutional at the present time, but if the 16th amendment were repealed the Pollock decision's requirement of apportionment would again apply and the present income tax would for that reason again become unconstitutional for the reasons set out in Pollock.

Keep in mind that after the Pollock case, the Court ruled in Flint vs Stone Trace Congress could tax, without an apportionment, a tax calculated from profits/gains. Additionally, in Eisner vs Macomber, also after the adoption of the 16th, the Court struck down a tax calculated from incomes. I don’t follow your reasoning, but Congress exercised a power to lay and collect an “income tax” long before the 16th Amendment [the civil war income tax] and it was upheld as being constitutional.

My point is, H.J.RES. 104, would not withdraw Congress’ power to lay and collect taxes calculated from profits, gains and other incomes, a power exercise long before the 16th Amendment and upheld as being constitutional.

Do you object to rewording H.J. RES. 104 as I recommend to end the controversy?

JWK

“Honest money and honest taxation, the Key to America’s future Prosperity“ ___ from “Prosperity Restored by the State Rate Tax Plan”, no longer in print.

Need a 3-tiered tax on gross income from ALL sources:

5% on all un-earned income to include SS, All Gov't handouts, ALL Penssion payouts where the recipient didn't pay into the plan

10% on the lowest 50% of annual earned income

20% on the top 50% of annual earned income. Rates are to be permanently locked at 5 points between the two lowest rates and 10 points to the highest. If rates go up then the rates would be 6%, 11% and 21%, etc. Corporations would pay the top rate (20% as above initially) with NO deductions and the Corp rate would be locked to the highest rate and float up or down accordingly. Over a period of 20 years the Corp rate will be reduced to zero for domestic revenue. NO LAW WILL FAVOR, FUND, CONTRIBUTE TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY. FEDERAL GOV'T WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LEND ANY ENTITY OR PERSON ANY MONEY, NOR FORGIVE OR REDUCE ANY DEBT. THE FEDERAL DEFICIT MUST BE REDUCED TO ZERO by JAN 1, 2050, WITH DOCUMENTED ANNUAL REDUTION GOALS FOR EACH YEAR. IF THE GOAL FOR ANY YEAR IS NOT MET THE SHORTFALL MUST BE MADE UP IN THE NEXT YEAR, AND CONGRESS' SALARIES WILL BE CUT BY % OF THE MISS. IF THE GOAL IS MISSED FOR 2 CONSECUTIVE YEARS THERE WILL BE SPECIAL ELECTIONS FOR ALL 535 MEMBERS & THEIR ENTIRE STAFFS WILL BE FIRED & FORBIDDEN GOV'T EMPLOYMENT PERMANENTLY. ONLY citizen taxpayers can vote. Each voter will be provided a unique control number/identifier and will be able to go online and verify that their vote was counted as they cast it. Anyone convicted of violating voting laws will spend a minimum of 10 years in prison; 2nd offense 20 years. No early voting allowed. Absentee ballots will be available only to deployed military and Gov't employees and Gov't Contractors deployed overseas. Lastly, when one votes, they will get the "Purple finger" and anyone who cheats will go to jail as described above. If we cannot trust our elections we have no hope for the future.

With respect to apportionment our founders agreed by our Constitution that if Congress ever found a need to lay a direct tax among the states, each state’s share of a total sum being raised would be proportionately equal to its number of representatives in Congress. The two formulas regarding apportionment are:

States’ pop
------------------ X SUM TO BE RAISED = STATE’S SHARE
U.S. Population

State`s Pop.
___________ X House size (435) = State`s No. of Representatives
U.S. total pop

see an Act laying a direct tax for $3 million in which the rule of apportionment is applied and each State’s Congressional Delegation returned home with a bill in hand for their State’s Governor and Legislature to deal with. And then see Section 7 of direct tax of 1813 allowing states to raise and pay their respective quotas in their own chosen way and be entitled to certain deductions in meeting their payment on time.

JWK

I cannot imagine why any freedom loving person would ever support a flat tax when it is a key component of a despotic government from which it derives its totalitarian control over the people!

A flat tax calculated from incomes, even if “flat”, does absolutely nothing to remove the iron fist of our federal government from the necks of America’s hard working productive citizens and business owners. Does your flat tax end our despotic federal government from arbitrarily deciding what is and what is not taxable income? No! Does it end our Washington Establishment’s use of taxation to intentionally seek out America’s productive hard working citizens and transfer the bread they have earned to a dependent voting block who prostitutes their vote for free government cheese? No! How about the devastating and slavish manipulations carried out under this socialist tax calculated from incomes? Does a flat tax end that? No! Or, would your flat tax end taxation being used as a political weapon to silence, threaten and punish political foes while rewarding the friends of a tyrannical bloated federal government? Heck No! So why are you comfortable with a flat tax which in turn is a component part of a despotic federal government?

Why not promote a return to our Founder’s original tax plan, as they intended it to operate, and especially the wisdom and brilliance requiring both representation and direct taxation to be apportioned?

During my 35 or so years in the fight to restore the miracle our founders left for us, I have noticed there are two specific issues which false leaders will not discuss. The first is the brilliance and wisdom of our Constitution’s ORIGINAL TAX PLAN, including its rule of apportionment as applied to taxation. The second issue is our Founder’s specific intentions forbidding notes of any kind, and would include Federal Reserve Notes, from being made a legal tender in payment for either for public or private debt.

Our founders lived under the tyranny of dishonest money and despotic taxation, and they provided specific protections in our Constitution against these tools of oppression which have long been used by dishonest and corrupt governments to enslave and steal the wealth which the people have produced. And yet, which of today’s “leaders” is there to address these issues as our Founders did when framing and ratifying our Constitution?

JWK

”Honest money and honest taxation, the Key to America’s future Prosperity“ ___ from “Prosperity Restored by the State Rate Tax Plan”, no longer in print.

It’s not taxes, even on income, that is breeding tyranny and corruption — it is the selectivity, ‘secrecy’, disproportionality, and complexity. The ‘secrecy’ is endemic to withholdings — which were implemented in order to take from people w/o their notice — facilitates a lot of apathy on the taxpayer’s behalf because they don’t realize that it’s their monies (just look at the general attitude regarding tax returns — psychologically they tend to see it as the government giving them money).

Withholdings also make it virtually impossible to tax revolt (practically speaking) or protest — combined with asset forfeiture ‘laws’ this provides a great incentive to keep the current corrupt system.

A flat-tax is proportionate and therefore inherently fair. It is the other things — deductions, credits, exemptions, etc — which make it unfair... especially when you consider the considerable complexity [and ambiguity] “baked in” to our current system which, like much of our current ‘law’, cannot be objectively observed, interpreted, nor enforced.

“Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.”
— Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

It’s not taxes, even on income, that is breeding tyranny and corruption — it is the selectivity, ‘secrecy’, disproportionality, and complexity ...

All of which is made possible with a federal tax that is calculated from profits, gains, salaries and other "incomes". Withdraw this power of taxation from Congress hands, return to our Constitution's ORIGINAL TAX PLAN as it was intended to operate by our Founders, and most of the sufferings now experienced under federal taxation will be ended!

JWK

“Honest money and honest taxation, the Key to America’s future Prosperity“ ___ from “Prosperity Restored by the State Rate Tax Plan”, no longer in print. JWK

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