[JOHN W K]

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

After “taxes” there is a comma, after which the kinds of taxes are listed as “duties, imposts and excises,” Even our courts have repeatedly acknowledged taxes being limited to duties, imposts and excises, and of course, direct taxes, the last of which require apportionment.

Regards,
JWK

[capt. norm]

After “taxes” there is a comma, after which the kinds of taxes are listed as “duties, imposts and excises,”

No it doesn't. Taxes is the first item on a list of items seperated by commas.

The people that wrote our founding documents had a better grip on the English language than that.

[CyberAnt]

But .. can't the word "excise" be classified as a "sales" tax ..??

[Eagle of Liberty]

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

Two things that I see:

1. It says Congress has the power to collect taxes, duties, imposts AND excises. These are synonyms of the word TAX and make it so general as to cover many ways that the Government can collect money.

2. It does not limit taxes to duties, imposts, or excises. Otherwise, the Income Tax would be Unconstitutional. Got a recent Judicial ruling calling the Income Tax Unconstitutional? What about Property Tax? What about the stupid obsolete Phone Tax that still exists? That one covered by the Constitution? Luxury Tax? Death Tax?