Debt & Taxes
"The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is... legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay ... If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system." - Frederic Bastiat
The premise of an income tax, that government has a right to the fruits of your labor, is antithetical to a free society. An income tax implies that a government owns you and allows you to keep a portion of what you make.
No judge would ever challenge the constitutionality of a $1+ trillion revenue source. But the constitutionality of the 16th Amendment is clearly questionable, if for no other reason than it is not an apportioned tax (Article 1 Section 2). Even if an income tax is constitutional, certainly a progressive tax cannot be. Article I Section 9 states "No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken."
The 16th Amendment was originally billed as a minor imposition on only the wealthiest Americans. But like many government taxes and programs, once established the income tax slowly but inexorably expanded. In its first year Federal income taxes derived half its revenue from John D. Rockefeller and only a few Americans paid it. By 1939, 26 years after its passage, 5% of Americans were required to file an income tax return. Today over 80% are required to file.
I support a scheduled reduction of income taxes leading to the repeal of the 16th Amendment.