RADICAL REPUBLICANISM: MAGA MUST REPEAL THE 16TH AMENDMENT

 

RADICAL REPUBLICANISM: MAGA MUST REPEAL THE 16TH AMENDMENT

When you liberate a man from his responsibility of his pursuit of happiness then you liberate a man from liberty. Liberty (n.) is late 14c., "free choice, freedom to do as one chooses," also "freedom from the bondage of sin," from Old French liberte "freedom, liberty, free will" (14c., Modern French liberté), from Latin libertatem (nominative libertas) "civil or political freedom, condition of a free man; absence of restraint; permission," from liber "free" (see liberal (adj.)). At first of persons; of communities, "state of being free from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic rule or control" is by late 15c. The French notion of liberty is political equality; the English notion is personal independence. [William R. Greg, "France in January 1852" in "Miscellaneous Essays"] Nautical sense of "leave of absence" is from 1758. The meaning "unrestrained action, conduct, or expression" (1550s) led to take liberties "go beyond the bounds of propriety" (1620s). The sense of "privileges by grant" (14c.) led to the sense of "a person's private land" (mid-15c.), within which certain special privileges may be exercised, which yielded in 18c. in both England and America a sense of "a district within a county but having its own justice of the peace," and also "a district adjacent to a city and in some degree under its municipal jurisdiction" (as in Northern Liberties of Philadelphia). Also compare Old French libertés "local rights, laws, taxes." Alexander Hamilton argued that British taxes on colonists were an intolerable form of slavery He denounced the British for imposing "oppressive taxes" on colonists, which he saw as "a form of slavery" that had become intolerable.

What is slavery? Frederick Douglass said,  "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man." Through taxation, we have been made slaves. Slaves to those that control the levers of power that were supposed to protect the liberties and freedom of men. Why merely have black slaves when you can make your entire population slaves. “He had compared the taxation to a form of slavery and had encouraged his fellow Jews to rise up against their oppressors”, according to Bill O'Reilly, Killing Jesus: A History. "The power to tax is the power to destroy." satd John Marshall - Founding Father & 4th U.S. Chief Justice. Quotes linking slavery and income taxes often compare the latter to the former, asserting that being forced to give a portion of one's labor to the government is a form of enslavement. Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and U.S. President wrote, "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." Jacob G. Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, said, "Those who advocate either slavery or income taxation should be ashamed of themselves. Genuine freedom entails the abolition, not the reform, of income taxation and the IRS, just as genuine freedom entailed the abolition, not the reform, of slavery." 

Slave (n.) is c. 1300, sclave, esclave, "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples. The meaning "one who has lost the power of resistance to some habit or vice" is from 1550s. Applied to devices from 1904, especially those which are controlled by others (compare slave jib in sailing, similarly of locomotives, flash bulbs, amplifiers). In U.S. history, slave state, one in which domestic slavery prevails, is from 1812. Old English Wealh "Briton" also began to be used in the sense of "serf, slave" c. 850; and Sanskrit dasa-, which can mean "slave," apparently is connected to dasyu- "pre-Aryan inhabitant of India." Grose's dictionary (1785) has under Negroe "A black-a-moor; figuratively used for a slave," without regard to race. More common Old English words for slave were þeow (related to þeowian "to serve") and þræl (see thrall). The Slavic words for "slave" (Russian rab, Serbo-Croatian rob, Old Church Slavonic rabu) are from Old Slavic *orbu, from the PIE root *orbh- (also source of orphan (n.)), the ground sense of which seems to be "thing that changes allegiance" (in the case of the slave, from self to master). The Slavic word is also the source of robot. The reduction of scl- to sl- is normal in English (compare slate, also Dutch slaaf, Danish slave, but German Sklave).

Modern slavery is an umbrella term covering situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power. It is a hidden crime affecting every country in the world, with an estimated 50 million people living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021. Some examples of modern slavery include forced labor, human trafficking, forced marriage, child slavery, domestic servitude, state imposed forced labor and debt bondage. Stare imposed forced labor is citizens are compelled to work by state authorities for economic or punitive reasons. Debt bondage is one in which individuals are forced to work off a debt, often exceeding the original loan and potentially passed down through generations. Income tax is a mandatory payment to federal, most state, and some local governments based on annual earnings. These funds are the primary source of revenue for the U.S. federal government and are used to provide public goods and services. Walk Free says, "'Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation in which a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuse of power." 

President William McKinley said, "I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.' After winning control of Congress and the presidency in the 1892 elections, the Democratic Party made tariff reduction a key priority. President Grover Cleveland and his congressional allies proposed a bill that affected moderate downward revisions in the tariff, especially on raw materials. The shortfall in revenue was to be made up by an income tax of two percent on income above $4,000. The Democratic controlled Congress was ambivalent about the income tax but included it in the proposed bill in large part because of the efforts of Congressmen William Jennings Bryan and Benton McMillin. The Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 was a U.S. law that slightly lowered tariff rates from the McKinley Tariff but was more famous for re-establishing a federal income tax. The law was intended to help the economy by lowering tariffs. Supported by pro-free trade members of the Democratic Party. The income tax amendment—despite fierce opposition from Republicans and northern Democrats, who labeled it "class legislation" and a communistic idea foreign to American ideals—passed. Some Democrats, such as those who had interests in protecting sugar, opposed the bill, while some Republicans in the Northeast who benefited from lower tariffs voted in favor. 

House of Representatives

• Vote: 182-105 in favor
• Democrats: The vote was overwhelmingly Democratic, with the bill named after two Democrats, Congressman William Wilson and Senator Arthur P. Gorman.
• Republicans: Nearly all Republicans voted against the bill, which they viewed as an attack on American manufacturing and financial interests. 

Senate

• Vote: 39-34 in favor
• Democrats: Some Democrats supported the bill, particularly those from the South who were interested in lowering protective tariffs on sugar.
• Republicans: A majority of Republicans opposed the bill, joined by senators from states with interests in protective tariffs on coal and iron.
• Other: There were also 12 abstentions in the Senate vote. 

President Cleveland, furious that many Democratic senators had deserted his call for lower tariffs, allowed the bill to become law without his signature. 

Norman Stein writes, "Many Americans and populist politicians saw the tariff-based tax system as protecting capitalists by immunizing their products from competition from imports. Some also resented the wealthy, who were sometimes seen as shirking their responsibility to help pay for government services. Thus, the idea and appeal of an income tax—reducing tariffs and increasing the tax burden on the affluent—never fully retreated from the American political landscape. There was, in fact, constant political pressure on Congress to restore the income tax,'

The 16th Amendment originated from the need to establish a federal income tax after the Supreme Court ruled an earlier income tax unconstitutional in 1895. In the case of Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., the Court determined that an income tax was a direct tax that had to be apportioned among states based on population. To remove this barrier, President William H. Taft proposed an amendment, which was passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified by the states in 1913, giving Congress the power to levy an income tax on individuals without regard to population. In Pollock versus Farmers, Chief Justice Melville Fuller, writing for the majority, stated that a tax on income from property was essentially a direct tax on the property itself, requiring apportionment. He emphasized that substance, not form, was paramount, noting that an annual tax on the value or use of real estate is in substance the same as an annual tax on the real estate paid from income. He also added that if form could change substance, constitutional limitations would be uncertain. Fuller also held that federal taxation of interest earned on certain state bonds violated the doctrine of intergovernmental tax immunity. In one dissent, Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote that the majority opinion "involves nothing less than the surrender of the taxing power to the moneyed class." The "Tax the Rich" argument begins and the Democrats have not let up on its identity politics and class warfare! Race division since slavery.

The phrase "tax the rich" emerged in the 1930s, specifically with the Revenue Act of 1935, which introduced the "Wealth Tax" to fund President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs. During this time, the highest incomes faced marginal tax rates as high as 75%, and the law was popularly known as the "Soak the Rich" tax. More broadly, the sentiment of taxing wealth is rooted in historical tax fairness issues, such as the Boston Tea Party, and was intensified during major conflicts like World War I and II which required mass mobilization and funding. What constitutes "fairness" is subject to different interpretations and economic perspectives:  Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) today introduced H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act, a bill to replace the current tax code with a national consumption tax known as the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax would repeal the current tax code and replace it with a single national consumption tax. In addition to eliminating all personal and corporate income taxes, the death tax, gift taxes, and the payroll tax, the Fair Tax would also eliminate the need for the Internal Revenue Service. “The Fair Tax is exactly that – fair. It is the only tax proposal out there that is pro-growth, simple, and allows Americans to keep every cent of their hard-earned money, while eliminating the need for the IRS altogether. I’m proud to lead this Georgia-grown legislation that puts the American people, not bureaucrats, in charge of their tax rate,” said Rep. Carter. 

The truth of the matter is that direct taxation is the Republicans fault. The Reagan Library enlightens us:

"Fourteen years after the Pollock decision, President William H. Taft proposed to Congress a new income tax of 2% on corporations. This would be imposed by an excise tax on manufactured goods and an amendment to the Constitution to legally sanction the most recent federal income tax. Several conservative senators proposed different versions of the new amendment throughout 1909. Many citizens living in the West and the South supported an income tax on the grounds that it would be an easier way to raise funds on those less well-off. Several key Republicans, including former President Theodore Roosevelt, began to believe that the new amendment’s income tax would be good to help finance the United States’ increasing political and military power. These “insurgent” Republicans – many of whom would go on to create the “Bull Moose” Party – stood in opposition to the establishment Republicans in Congress. Their opposition to the new amendment was largely rooted in their connections to major businesses of the time period, while others argued that an income tax would make the federal government more powerful and centralized. The rise of the Progressive Party and the victory of the Democratic Party in the 1912 Presidential Election allowed for an easier ratification phase of the new amendment. From 1909 to 1913, the new amendment was ratified by the required thirty-six states out of the then forty-eight. On February 3, 1913, just one month before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson, the Sixteenth Amendment was formally accepted into the Constitution. With the income tax provision outlined in the new amendment, the Revenue Act of 1913 was soon after enacted into law by Congress. The most significant long-term impact of the Sixteenth Amendment was the shift in the way the federal government received funding for its works. What was originally conceived as a system that depended largely on tariffs at a level just slightly above the many states, transformed into a more powerful, centralized institution that sourced vast quantities of funding through the many incomes of individuals and the states."

The ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment essentially overturned the key holding in Pollock, and Congress established a new federal income tax in the Revenue Act of 1913. The Court's holding regarding the taxation of interest income on certain bonds was later overruled in the 1988 case of South Carolina v. Baker. 

REPEAL THE SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT1 END THE PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST ERA!

While both William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt were progressive presidents who supported taxing wealth, they differed on personal income tax specifics. Roosevelt favored a graduated personal income tax and an inheritance tax, while Taft was hesitant about personal income tax, viewing it more for emergencies, but he did support a 2% corporate income tax and proposed the constitutional amendment that would later become the 16th Amendment. 

President Calvin Coolidge said, "Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." The Sixteenth Amendment:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Frederick Douglass was against the idea of buying freedom, stating, "The man who has suffered the wrong is the man to demand redress...he who has endured the cruel pangs of Slavery is the man to advocate Liberty". He believed that paying for freedom was a validation of the slaveholder's claim and a betrayal of one's own natural right to be free, famously describing a certificate of freedom as a "detestable certificate" and a "blasphemous forgery". 

President Trump said that each American will receive at least $2,000 from tariff revenue collected by the administration.

“A dividend of at $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” the president said on his Truth Social platform. He added that those against the tariffs are “FOOLS!”

That sounds great but I say let's change one word-"without" to "within" in the Sixteenth Amendment, eliminate the income tax, and release the MAGA-financial revolution on the world.

A dividend is for today. Ending the 16th is forever!