Okay, I’ve made my points on taxation clear. Now can we get back to discussing the original post and video?
Let us place the taxation arguments aside, and agree that currently taxes are excessive,that there is fraud and abuse, something I doubt you will find much disagreement with here.
On the subject of the 13th amendment Paul is wrong, on a couple of key points:
One, love it or hate it, after the hyperbole and rhetoric is stripped away, taxation is not any form of servitude by any sane legal or technical definition unless the rate is 100%. You are not taxed 100% of your income at any point during a working hour. If you are taxed say 35% of your income that is 35 cents per dollar earned, therefore at any given working second only 35% of what you make goes to the government. So you are not working for free, you are being paid for your efforts and part of what you are earning goes to provide for defense so you have palace to work, roads to get there and for the goods and services you produce to be deliverer etc. etc. Even you have acknowledged that there are certain roles the government should play and those have to be paid for, preferably in an fair manner, though that is not always the case.
Argue to reduce taxes, argue to reduce waste, argue to reduce government largesse but making crazy statements about coercion or not asking for the very roads we all, including you, make use of negates anything you could say about the more responsible ideas and goals I mentioned.
Two, another point that has been brought to your attention is that the 16th Amendment, which WAS ratified, superseded the 13th any ways, so even if the 13th had any bearing on the matter, the point is moot. Get rid of the 16th and you still have no argument based on the 13th as I mentioned, but it could be a start in other directions.
Like I have said, crackpot schemes and spurious arguments over unsubstantiated technicalities get us no where and indeed make the conservative movement look like a bunch of nutjobs to the very folks we need to be bringing into the fold to actually win races. The winners make the rules.
So there you go, there is a discussion on the original post and video