You asked, I'm curious about Taft and income tax, though. How responsible was he for it? You're gonna have to read the book... Taft was not responsibile for the income tax; he was reponsible for the 16th Amendment. Wilson enacted the personal income tax.
In short, Taft's deal was this: when progressives teamed up with Democrats to vote up an income tax in 1909, Taft cut it short by offering instead a corporation excise tax (based on income) and the 16th amendment. His goals were twofold: to cut short any personal income tax, and to make sure that if any income tax were enacted, it would not cause a constitutional or political crisis, as happened in the income tax of 1894/5 and the Pollock decision.
Some kind of income tax was on the way. There was no way to avoid it. By 1909, the tariff had proved itself incapable to fund the government (it accounted for about half the budget by then), and, politically, it had run its course. The only way to cut, or even maintain, the tariff was to adopt some "other" tax, as Taft said in his Inaugural Address. During the debates in Congress that "other" included income, inheritance, excise and even stamp taxes.
Scenic Sounds, indeed, the 16th amendment was ratified under Taft. I love the rants that it was never properly ratified, or that Taft was not constitutionally qualified for the presidency because he was born in a territory, etc. It's all great fun, and entirely ludicrous.
Interesting Taft site here. Sounds like Aldrich made a lot of unnecessary problems for Taft.
Glad you like my alternate titles. I spent years watching the old David Letterman show, and I must have picked something up from all those wasted hours.
Some good Tax Quotes. I can't say that I agree with all of them, but they're good for a laugh or a think. Unfortunately, quotations have to be pretty short to fit in the tag line.