Happy Tax Day!

Constitutional Moment of the Day

In honor of “Tax Day,” I present for your consideration . . .

Amendment XVI

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Just 30 words that have done more to transfer power away from the people and states and to the federal government than any other arrangement of a similar number of words anywhere else in the Constitution. More on this later.

Quote of the Day

“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.”
- John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819


The Horrors of 1913

Although today has popularly been proclaimed “Tax Day,” in reality, every day is “Tax Day.” Every day, hour, minute that you work taxes are being withheld from your hard earned income. Every time you go shopping taxes are added to the cost of your purchase. You pay taxes when you pay your utility and phone bill. Property is taxed, capital gains are taxed, dividends are taxed, inheritance is taxed, even “sin” is taxed.

What does this have to do with the year 1913? As you might have guessed the above-mentioned amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1913. The Sixteenth Amendment expanded Congress’s power to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” and nullified its expressed limitation that “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” Congress was now able to tax income “from whatever source derived” and was not required to assign those taxes among the several states based on population. This is an almost unrestrained power to tax. Do you really think that is what the Framers had in mind? Wasn’t the Revolutionary War fought, in large part, against excessive and unfair taxation by the British Crown?

The federal income tax allowed by the 16th Amendment tapped a vein of almost unlimited revenue that directly fueled the astronomical expansion, and intrusion, of the federal government over the rest of the century and which continues to this day; like some parasitic creature that attaches itself to an unwilling or unsuspecting host and eventually consumes it. It is no accident that the federal government remained relatively small for the 126 years prior to the Sixteenth Amendment and has subsequently exploded in the 97 years that have followed. The truly horrific aspect of all this is that the revenue supplied by the national income tax is not enough to satisfy the voracious appetite of a bloated federal government, and it must assuage that hunger by borrowing money from the Chinese and Japanese. Now even this is not enough. Last week the Obama administration proposed a national sales tax called the Value Added Tax. It is yet another vein to be opened and lapped with vigor by the uncontrollable beast.

But, the Sixteenth Amendment was only the first atrocity committed against the American people that fateful year. For the first time since the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791, two amendments to the Constitution were ratified in the same calendar year. Which brings us to . . .

Another Constitutional Moment of the Day

Amendment XVII

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. (bold added)

The horror of this change to the Constitution may not be immediately apparent. For over 120 years prior to this amendment, Senators were chosen by the legislature of a state and not elected directly by the voters. How, you might ask, is it a bad thing, let alone horrific, to expand democracy by allowing the citizens of a state to popularly elect their own senators?

The beauty, some might rightfully say, the brilliance, of the U. S. Constitution is the system of checks and balances erected by the Framers. These were men who had recently fought a long and costly war against an overpowering central government (Great Britain), and had experienced the failings of a week national government under the Articles of Confederation. They strived to maintain a delicate balance not only between the states and the federal government, but also between the three branches of the central government. They understood all too well the dangers of too much power in the hands of one branch of government, or in the federal government as a whole, at the expense of the states. James Madison and his brethren did not decide on a whim that Senators should serve for 6 years (a third of all senators being elected every two years), House Representatives for two years, the president for four, and the Supreme Court Justices for life. This was designed as a check against the entire government being replaced during one election cycle by a mercurial electorate. House members, it was thought, should be directly elected by the people in hopes that congressmen would truly represent the wishes of their constituents. Likewise, Senators chosen by state legislatures would, by design, be beholden to the state governments that selected them rather than the federal government. If the legislators of a state felt that a senator was not appropriately protecting the interests of the state, they could replace him after six years. Simply put, congressmen were meant to represent the people, senators to represent the states. Senators were put there as the states’ watchdogs against federal encroachment in their affairs. With the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, a critically important barrier restraining the federal government fell, and, like the amendment that preceded it, helped pave the way for the unprecedented federal expansion seen in the last century.

It’s not too late.


Next time . . . “a long train of abuses.”