[Alberta's Child]

Internal taxes were frowned upon by the Founder's especially when a national revenue could be had by requiring foreign nations to pay for the privilege of doing business on American's soil!

With all due respect to the Founding Fathers, this is a lot of crap. One of the first acts of the U.S. government was an excise tax on distilled spirits in 1791, a move that eventually led to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. It seems that we have nothing to complain about these days when it comes to the "unconstitutional" expansion of the Federal government -- the United States "as we knew it" only lasted for about two years before all the nonsense began.

[sheltonmac]

"One of the first acts of the U.S. government was an excise tax on distilled spirits in 1791..."

I believe that was a little different. If I'm not mistaken, the tax on whiskey was collected at the source rather than at the point of sale.