Well, are you all looking forward to your big tax rebate this year? Will it pacify you into a state of servitude to the central government for another year or two or four? Or have you come to the realization that you are being conned and subjected to taxation without meaningful representation?
America will never again become a free country until it ends the income tax. I’ll bet you agree with that statement. I’ll bet a referendum on ending the income tax would be approved by 75 percent of the American people.
Yet, most of us throw up our hands and think it will never happen. It can’t happen, we think. The government has become too big and too reliant on that revenue. Too many people are themselves reliant – or think they are – on checks from the government, money literally confiscated by force from their friends, their neighbors, their own family members.
Somebody has to stand up and just say no. Letters to members of Congress aren’t good enough. Too many members of Congress are afraid to take on the Internal Revenue Service for fear the monster will come after them. It’s going to take a grass-roots rebellion – the kind envisioned by our Founding Fathers when, as they saw it, government would inevitably assume too much power from the people.
The truth is that the federal government is so big and derives so much revenue from so many sources it could easily perform all of its constitutional functions (and even some extra-constitutional roles) with revenues just from non-IRS sources.
In other words, the government would not collapse if the IRS and the tax code were scrapped tomorrow. The only thing that would change is that the government would be forced to be prudent, to examine how it is throwing your money around, to stop all the wealth-transfer schemes that are only designed to maintain excessive power in Washington.
For example, less than half of federal revenues are currently derived from individual income taxes.
Did you know that? It’s amazing, isn’t it? Of the fiscal year 2000 tax revenue collected – more than $2 trillion – just over $1 trillion comes from individual income taxes. You could operate the government at 1990 levels of spending – which were, even then, totally out of control without the income taxes collected in 2000.
A look at the budget figures points out some other problems.
- Social Security taxes constitute one-third of federal revenues. That is how Washington claims to have huge budget surpluses, when, in fact, it is still bleeding red ink. If, indeed, we have a surplus, ask yourself: Why is the national debt scheduled to grow to $5.6 trillion?
- Only a tiny portion of federal income is derived from tariffs – which was the primary constitutional vehicle for raising revenue for the national government. In fact, this was the main source of revenue for Washington through the early part of the 20th century.
The June 2001 edition of WorldNet magazine blows the lid off out-of-control spending in Washington that is given license by the reality of the income tax.
“Federal Feeding Frenzy” by Washington Bureau Chief Paul Sperry is the clearest, most comprehensive and mind-boggling expose available on the way the U.S. government spends ever more of your hard-earned money – regardless of who sits in the White House.
Here are a few key points covered:
- Today’s budget beast was born in 1913. Its parents: the federal Reserve System and the federal income tax.
- Ever since gross mismanagement on the part of the federal Reserve and a handful of bureaucrats gave America the Great Depression, the resulting New Deal’s entitlement culture has inexorably moved America further and further away from its original constitutional system of limited government.
- Entitlements, funded automatically each year, are the fastest-growing part of the budget – doubling roughly every eight years since 1950 – and now make up nearly 55 percent of all spending.
The issue also points the way to a solution – a better way to govern, a more moral approach. The magazine includes a reprint of “Not yours to give,” an unforgettable story about U.S. Rep. Davey Crockett, written in 1894 by Edward S. Ellis. It shows how he learned the true meaning of constitutional spending while serving as a congressman from Tennessee. This classic story is one of the best illustrations of the letter and spirit of the Constitution available anywhere.
And that – when you cut to the chase – is what it’s really all about.
We don’t need an income tax. We don’t want an income tax. So, why do we have an income tax? And why isn’t anyone even talking about eliminating it?
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