Posted by
IndyBlogger on Thursday, January 22, 2009 3:51:27 PM
I'm taking a break for the daily news, and I wanted to reflect on
what real change would look like, what would promote real hope in this country
and return it to economic stability. At
that end of that analysis and research, the single most important thing that
this country and its people need to work towards right now is to repeal the 16th
Amendment. Many people are sure what it
is so you can read it here, this site has further links on its history.
The 16th Amendment makes it legal for income tax
to exist from the federal government. This
was not a right given in the original Constitution. Income taxes have grown to be everything the
originators of this country thought they would be, a source of tyranny, extortion,
waste and class warfare.
I wondered what is going on to make this happen
now, if anything. What action could we
take? There are several things we can do
right now and I urge you to find a way to take some action today. Nothing will happen if we just read and write
blogs. Please do something today, I’ll
put links to sites here and many of them take just a minute.
The main objections I have seen to date are the following:
- There
is no alternative plan
- We
have to pay the bill anyway, so lets fix the system we have (There is no
difference)
Both of the objections are totally wrong. Before federal income tax the federal
government collected money from the states. My historical point of view is that the states wimped out and didn’t
want to be responsible for collecting the money they needed from people and
being the bad guy, so they let the federal government be the guy and supported
this amendment. History recorded it
slightly differently. In any event, they
collected the money based on the size of the population in your state. Which is also how it is decided how much representation
you have in our government today. That is
the basis of our government; we are a Republic, not a Democracy. If we were a democracy than, I would be fine
with the federal tax, because I would get to vote. As it is today, I don’t get to vote on a bill,
I vote for a representative who votes on bills. So collect the percentage from each state by the percentage of votes
they get. Very simple and very fair. Certain states don’t like this of course
because they like to pass laws that take money from smaller states and give it
to big ones. This is the direct cause of
the failure of California
to balance its own budget and then to look to the federal government for a bailout. It’s the perception that the Federal
Government has money but it’s the state’s money. So they are suggesting taking money from one
state to fund another’s inept ability to manage itself.
We do have to pay the bill anyway, but moving the collection
of the money to the states does many things to improve the process. This is very different. It moves collection closer to the
people. Those people can have influence or
more influence at a state level to control how those funds are collected. It also makes States competitive, they have
to spend and collect our money wisely or in the end a business or a person can
move out of that state. It will mean a
dramatic reduction in waste because people will not complete 2 tax returns one for
State and one for Federal. It will mean
that the federal government can’t dictate state policy through the use of
federal funds. For example, it is the
right of a state to set its own speed limits. But at one point in time there was a national speed limit of 55MPH because
you couldn’t get money for roads if you didn’t comply. This is exactly the behavior the founders of
this country wanted to avoid.
So do something:
Let me know what you do, what we can do, or about any other
person or group trying to bring about this same goal.