(History News Network) — Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday, and like tens of millions of Americans, I watched the game last night, blackout and all. Yesterday morning, though, I celebrated a less popular institution: the federal income tax. February 3 marked the centennial of the Sixteenth Amendment, which wrote that tax into the Constitution.
Why do I feel so alone?
Nobody likes the income tax. Some self-professed patriots have convinced themselves that the Sixteenth Amendment was never properly ratified, and Republicans are launching new assaults on state income taxes. “America’s founders rejected the income tax entirely,” they say, and we should follow their lead.
