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Sixteenth & Eighteenth Amendments
All of the talk about Romney’s tax returns leaves me cold. I should say all of the headlines about tax returns leaves me cold because I don’t read the stories, and I’m outta there the minute a talking head broaches the subject. To me, the government taxing income has done more to tear down this country than all of the other betrayals combined. With hatred of a tax on income a firm belief it is impossible to care if one politician or another fails to produce tax returns.
Let me cop a plea here and say that there was a time when I believed that only government employees and elected officials should be required to report their incomes. I naively thought stiff prison sentences would reduce the number of crooks in government to a minimum. It did not take me long to realize that my position was hypocritical. I now believe that a tax on income is so reprehensible that Democrat crooks in Congress should not have to file a tax return.
Let’s face it, stickup artists like Pelosi, Reid, Feinstein, etc., filed tax returns in every year they were sending tax dollars to their family businesses. Harry Reid’s land deals are casebook studies for young wannabe crooks.
Like I always said, most of them arrive in Congress wearing dirty underwear and leave as millionaires. Those who arrive as millionaires not only protect their fortunes they get institutional protection for any larceny they might get up to while in Congress. My point: The XVI Amendment did nothing to stop small, medium, and large crooks in government from stealing. I just don’t see how it can be any worse without an income tax.
The XVI and the XVIII Amendments provide the appropriate comparison. Throughout the Prohibition era the police, judges, elected officials, etc., were on the take. Government apologists swore bootleggers were successful because servants of the law were underpaid. Comedians of the day chuckled that bribes were nothing more than income supplements.
Propagandists in today’s countless TV shows tell us government officials are straight arrows. Once in a while a storyline will depict beat cops taking a bribe from a local drug pusher, but how many shows have you seen where the officials at the top get their payoffs from drug kingpins? The fact is that drug dealers are more successful than bootleggers ever dreamed of being while government officials are overpaid. The question is: Where the hell are all of those tax dollars going?
After the XXI Amendment repealed the XVIII Amendment one old drunk put it in perspective: Repeal is a con job. There is no more booze available now than there was during Prohibition.
I suspect that repealing the XVI Amendment won’t see an increase in the number of crooks in government.
Class warfare
If you happen to hate the wealthy per se the number of tax dollar millionaires created by the XVI Amendment is ample justification for engaging in class warfare. Check the massive transfer of wealth that went from private sector producers to government coffers to tax dollar hustlers because of the income tax if you doubt me.
Finally, I always thought the tax return is a violation of the Fifth Amendment in that the taxpayer is forced to testify against himself before being charged with a crime:
Article [V]
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
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