Repeal the abominable 16th Amendment!

WorldNetDaily ^ | November 20, 2002 | Ilana Mercer

[scripter]

Ping

[scripter]

Saw you on a related thread ping.

[EternalVigilance]

Without commenting as yet on the content of the article, let me say that yes, I would certainly sign off this very minute on repealing the onerous, stupid, counterproductive, anticapitalist, anticapital formation, antiproductivity, antisavings, anti-Liberty Sixteenth Amendment.

[EternalVigilance]

PING!

[Cobra64]

The Founders intended for government to safeguard man's natural rights.

Yes, been saying this for 40 years.

[.30Carbine]

Thank you, scripter, for bringing me in to the thread. This well-written article does indeed state and extrapolate on a principle I voiced on another thread. (Thank you for noticing.) I said, "The problem starts with the idea that government has rights in the interest of the society at large which outweigh the needs of private individuals."

I like very much the author's inclusion of quotes from Chodorov - that government in its vaunted position above the individual will "recognize your need, not your right" to your own income - and from Rand, who showed in full living color through all her fiction works, including Atlas Shrugged, that "rights are conditions of existence required by man's nature for his survival," and what the end of man is when those rights are infringed or denied.

As much as I admire Ilana Mercer for the quotes incorporated into this article, and for the basic argument put forth herein that man's income is man's property and thus to be protected by the American Constitutional ideal rather than confiscated by the American Congressional machine, I must take issue with the following maxim: In a just society, the moral strictures that apply to the individual must also apply to the collective. I understand that in context Mercer was stating the obvious fact of nature - that stealing is wrong whether by the individual or by a collection of individuals. Our Representative form of government is a collection of individuals, and stealing by the government is as base and evil as any armed robbery is.

However, the author's statement by itself expresses perfectly the moral and cognitive reasoning behind the Socialist creed - in a nutshell: Man has inalienable, individual rights, therefore a collective of men, called Society, has duplicate and equivalent rights. This simply is not the case. As Rand showed in her works, both fiction and non-fiction, the surest way to bring about the demise of the individual is to ascribe to a collective an individual's nature and need of nurture. To allow government the role of that collective's mind or decision-making process is furthering the lie; men have minds, a collective of men does not. Such a philosophy and such a practice goes against nature and produces nothing but destruction, as evidenced by any nation that has fallen prey to it. We are beginning to see the results of such wrong thinking in our daily lives here in America.

I'll shut up now, with this closing thought and a link:
The history of the income tax is as corrupt as its results.

[.30Carbine]

This is Ilana Mercer, and you can click the pic to find out more about her:

(I know how you FReepermales are about these things.)

[fporretto]

Miss Mercer is incisive as usual.

For a long time now, a friend and I have been pushing the idea of redoing tax law to conform to the hierarchy among governments, rather than allow the hodgepodge of assertions of taxing authority we have today.

Here's how hierarchical taxation would work:

• Towns and incorporated villages would have the power to tax their residents, and no one else. This might be a poll tax or a property tax, but it would be best if there were only one taxing technique, rather than two or three which would blunt the impact of the quarterly or monthly tax bill.
• Counties would have the power to tax town (and incorporated village) governments, and nothing else.
• States would have the power to tax county governments, and nothing else.
• Washington would have the power to tax state governments, and nothing else.

In short, each level of government would have the power to lay and collect taxes only on the level immediately below it. If proximity to your oppressor stiffens your will to resist, that might have curative powers for our heavy degree of overtaxation. Anyway, a town tax bill for 45% of your income would certainly raise your eyebrows.

It would also be well if the original force of the Constitution's Article I, section 8, paragraph 1 uniformity provision were restored. This might be easier under a hierarchical system, because all states are equally represented in the U.S. Senate.

Fantasy? Of course. Nothing like this is politically possible in the foreseeable future. But just to suggest the idea gets people talking about federalism and the relations between the citizen and our various governmental structures, which can't be a bad thing.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[The Other Harry]

Here's how hierarchical taxation would work...

I think that's quite good. It is much more in line with what the Founders intended than is the bizarre, convoluted system(s) that currently exists.

Knock out the 17th amendment, and you'd have a grand slam.

[goldstategop]

If we could get a two thirds majority in Congress to go along sure. Unfortunately, the libs will oppose any measure that would thwart their schemes to have Washington run our lives. A better approach is to just repeal the Income Tax Code and abolish the IRS and simply pass a law allowing the Treasury to collect a specified percentage of state sales tax receipts. It can be done by a majority vote and once the details of this are explained to the country most people would love to be able to stop wrestling with their dread 1040 forms each April.

[Dick Bachert]

IF YOU WANT THIS MAN – AND MEN LIKE HIM – TO REMAIN IN CONTROL OF YOUR ECONOMIC AND PERSONAL DESTINY, CONTINUE TO TOLERATE THE CURRENT MARXIST INCOME TAX SYSTEM.

ONE MORE TIME:

IT’S ABOUT

P O W E R AND C O N T R O L!!

SIGN THE PETITION AT HTTP://WWW.VOTR.ORG. Then find out how you can do more to end America’s peculiar SPRING MADNESS.

The recent elections seem to indicate that we MAY have an 18 month window to get this done.

LET'S ROLL ON IT!

[The Other Harry]

If we could get a two thirds majority in Congress to go along sure. Unfortunately, the libs will oppose any measure that would thwart their schemes to have Washington run our lives...

It isn't just the "libs".

[weikel]

Bump

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Thank you all for the ping and a bump to .30Carbine.

This author scratches the surface but sadly, I doubt seriously that I will see the repeal in my lifetime. Akward as this seems to be, the socialist structures created in the early 1930's have created what I call an "inbred" segment of society (not a genetic reference so everyone calm down) of people who have been raised on a dependency on the government. What is sad about this is that this addiction has had two generations to become solidified. Each succeeding generation has taught the preceding one that this is the way the world works and that self initiative is no longer necessary because there is a "safety net". I can not tell you how many seniors I have spoken with that planned their retirement on Social Security alone. How many have based their medical needs on Medicaid and/or Medicare. This is not what our founding fathers wanted, but with in my estimate at least 40% of the population suckling on the government pig, no one will be able to remove the problem without killing the sow. I do not know the solution except the elimination of programs one at a time. The income tax and the giveaways have corrupted our capitalist system. Don't believe me? Well, the natural order of things has been long upset with the farming subsidy programs. Let the market do it's job and the inherent efficiencies of supply an demand would end up making stronger family farms instead of mega-corporate farms who have learned how to manage the system and get paid for empty fields. We as a nation have matured into a mini-Europe. Our surrender of our freedoms with the 16th Amendment was the beginning of Marxism in this nation. Now, sadly, we are watching socialism accelerate throughout society before our eyes.

[Taxman]

Precisely.

The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution fundamentally altered the relationship of American citizens and their government.

Prior to passage of the 16th Amendment, the citizen was the master, and the governement was the slave. After the 16th, government was the master and the citizens became slaves.

The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution must be repealed for any meaningful tax reform to be permanent. But it does not have to be repealed first.

[HumanaeVitae]

Repeal of the 16th is unlikely because to do so would reactivate the apportionment clause of the Constitution, i.e. states with 3% of the population pay 3% of the taxes and receive 3% of spending, etc. Small states are as likely to vote to repeal the electoral college as to repeal the 16th.

[Action-America]

In short, each level of government would have the power to lay and collect taxes only on the level immediately below it.

This is something that I have championed for years.  However, there is no such bill in Congress and no significant debate in this direction, so until we can generate more interest in that concept, I will continue to support the second best tax reform concept, the National Retail Sales Tax (NRST).  I like all direct taxes to be levied at the lowest level of government for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that each county could determine what method of taxation they wanted.  The loonies out on the left coast could have an income tax and we in Texas could have a sales tax.  Competition between counties and states would naturally determine the best tax system and keep taxes low.

 

[foreverfree]

bump

[GeekDejure]

Now I lay me down to sleep,

A tax-free bundle at my feet,

If I should die before I wake,

The gubmint still will take, Take, TAKE !!!