If you want to understand why I believe America has drifted so far from limited government, I would start with a year most Americans probably never think about: 1913. That was the year the 16th Amendment was ratified, giving Congress explicit constitutional authority to tax income without apportionment among the states. The 17th Amendment followed, changing the selection of U.S. senators from state legislative selection to direct election by voters.
And on the eve of Christmas Eve, December 23, 1913, Congress created the Federal Reserve System through the Federal Reserve Act. The 16th Amendment gave Congress the power to collect taxes on income without apportioning those taxes among the states according to population. This is referred to as a Pop-Tax, or a pay-one-price tax.
This is solved by everyone paying the same amount of money or sweat equity. I believe an income-tax system created a fundamentally different relationship between citizens and the federal government. The more directly Washington can tax individual income, the more directly it can expand its reach into the economic lives of Americans.
I have watched the tax system from the inside as a professional. I have seen how complicated it can become and how much economic activity can be consumed by compliance, administration, and government spending. My concern is not simply that Americans pay taxes.
A functioning government requires revenue. My concern is whether the system we have built has become so expansive that the middle class carries an increasingly heavy burden while the government continues to grow. I believe a tax system based on income can become a death sentence for the middle class when combined with waste, fraud, abuse, and unchecked government expansion.
That is one reason I believe we need to rethink the assumptions behind our tax system. The second development of 1913 is the 17th Amendment. Senators were selected by state legislatures.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
