Less Tax Would Benefit Nation

By John Hanson
Special to the Herald Courier

“Give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry uttered this famous statement as he joined an early minority of American colonists in support of declaring independence from the control of King George’s English government. The American Revolution that ensued was fought to gain the freedom that Henry valued more than life itself. To the extent that King George controlled the income of Americans he limited their freedom. It is a truism that anyone who controls your income controls you. Subsequently, in formulating the Constitution of the United States, the Founding Fathers envisioned a government that was “of the people, by the people, and for the people” and made it unconstitutional for the Federal Government to tax the income of its citizens. Sadly, in 1913 when Congress amended the Constitution to allow itself to tax the people’s income, our Government has grown more and more to be one “of the Congress, by the Congress, and for the Congress.

What we need now more than ever is smaller government and lower taxes.

We are not so slowly approaching a time when we will be telling our children stories about the “good old days” when America was a great and powerful republic and not an impotent socialist/communist society ruled by the Marxist principle of the state confiscating all wealth and redistributing it. To prevent this, the people must change the way our government is funded. We must restore our original constitutional ban on income taxation. We enjoyed a meteoric growth in the first 124 years of our country when our incomes were free of taxation. In the last 95 years under federal income taxes we have regressed to being a country that is in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars to foreign states that will glory in our downfall.

The power to control our income has corrupted our Congress. The collapses on Wall Street in 2008 reflect the vast extent of the corruption. Damn the will of the people, Congress is actually proposing to have their constituents pay billions in taxes to cover the losses their Wall Street power brokers have suffered through their own high risk business practices, mismanagement and greed. Congress alone must take full responsibility for our fiscal health because they alone have the initial and ultimate power to tax and spend. They can be tempted by the Fat Cats on Wall Street and the lobbyists on K Street, but they have the power to resist and put the interest of all citizens ahead of campaign contributions and personal enrichment. Their bills can be vetoed by the President but they have the power to override that action. The “buck” stops in Congress and only our 535 members of Congress determine the value of a buck. Congress is responsible for our current financial crisis.

The survival of America necessitates the repeal of the 16th Amendment which trashed the will of the men who formed our government and prohibited it from taxing our income.

They wisely counseled that giving the power to tax income to Congress would herald the end of the Republic. For this reason they carefully limited how Congress could raise revenues by taxation. Free of income taxation, America grew and prospered for its first 124 years. Shackled with income taxes for the last 95 years America has declined steadily into a nation in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars to foreign countries. Our politicians seem bent on making things worse for American companies and their customers as they propose higher corporate rates along with loopholes that enable their favored businesses to avoid the confiscation of their hard earned money. They seem oblivious to the fact that the treasuries of countries with the lowest corporate rates reap higher shares of their GDPs. On the one hand, they are advocating new and costly programs (spending) while on the other, by increasing taxes they are guaranteeing a decrease in federal revenue. Winston Churchill said, “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

What individual already deep in debt would plan to spend more when he knows his salary is going to be cut? Yet many of our members of Congress propose in defiance of all common sense to do just that. To keep themselves and their party in power, they compromise our liberty and the health of our economy through their power to tax our income.

Join the grassroots movement of the Americans for Fair Taxation to do something about our corrupted Congress. Go to www.FairTax.org to learn more.

John Hanson is a retired physics teacher who moved to Bristol, Va., in 2006 from New Orleans as a refugee from Hurricane Katrina.