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| Miller gives us all the IRS bird. |
"The protesters don't seem to realize that repeal of the 16th Amendment would not mean abolition of the income tax. Alas, tax relief must come from Congress."
Time to start with Congress and there is no better time than now!!
It's the 100th anniversary of the 16th Amendment. Don't forget to file your taxes. ...
On second thought, to hell with the bastards! m/r
Jay Starkman: Many Unhappy Returns—Millions of Them - WSJ.com
By JAY STARKMAN
A century ago, on Feb. 3, 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution authorizing a federal income tax was ratified. But the amendment's adoption was more an accident than an act of political will, and tinkering with the Constitution was not even required for the federal government to tax Americans' earnings.
The country's first income tax was implemented to raise money during the Civil War. The tax was repealed in 1872 because the revenues were no longer needed. The idea was resurrected in 1894 as a populist measure to tax the rich when William Jennings Bryan [now more famous for his prosecution of the "Scopes Monkey Trial'] successfully championed passage of a 2% income tax on annual income over $4,000. The rich denounced it as communistic and predicted that many would flee the country rather than pay the tax.
They didn't have to flee. The following year, a tax case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that an income tax on wages, professions and trades would be constitutional. But the court determined that the tax's application to rental income amounted to a tax on real property, violating the Constitution's "direct tax" clause. For that reason, the income tax was declared unconstitutional.
Initially, the decision was tied 4-4 with Justice Howell Jackson too ill to participate. So the dying Jackson was carried to court for a rehearing. He voted to uphold the tax.
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