[highlander_UW]

Actually, I think it needs to be two-pronged approach...repeal the 17th amendment giving power back to the states, but then ALSO repeal the 16th amendment. And then have the feds collect their tax revenue from the individual states, rather than from the individual citizen. Two bonuses to this...a state could then have any tax system they want...fair, flat, sales...whatever. Also, the costs of the benefits reaped by a state would not be spread out over the entire nation. If North Carolina wants to get 100 billion from the Feds for bat guano research, the citizens of NC can get taxed more heavily by their own legislature and the state would then pay that money back.

Good post...and I agree. The US would be far better off it the federal government was forced back into the proper balance of power with the states, and having the requirement of obtaining tax money from the states instead of directly would help instill that. It would also remove the need for the entire IRS department at the federal level. One more element of power that'd be removed back to the states which must already have some structure in place anyway, so it removes an unnecessary redundancy.

[rockinqsranch]

Agree with you both.

[Lurking Libertarian]

and having the requirement of obtaining tax money from the states instead of directly would help instill that. It would also remove the need for the entire IRS department at the federal level.

Repealing the 16th Amendment wouldn't accomplish that. Even before the 16th Amendment, Congress taxed the people directly and didn't go through the states. (The original Constitution gives the Congress power to "impose taxes, duties, imposts and excises," which is pretty broad.)

When the first income tax was passed (during the Civil War), the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality. When the first peacetime income tax was passed (in 1894), the Supreme Court unanimously held that it was constitutional as to earned income (salaries and wages), and held 5-4 that it was unconstitutional only as to rents on real property. That was actually the only thing authorized by the 16th Amendment that wasn't authorized already.