Taxing Our Patience

The editorial in the Sun Journal April 15 was entitled, "Tax trivia to chew on today."  I am commenting on several of the items in the list.

"The median family…pays more than $5,000 in income taxes, or more than 14 percent of its income…For the median family, taxes are a larger expense than housing, food and clothing combined." This is a shameful fact. Think about it when Congress proposes new taxes (which it will do soon, I predict).

"According to the Tax Foundation, it costs us $200 billion a year to comply with the tax code." So every year, to file our income tax returns, it costs us an amount roughly equal to the Obama Administration's bailout of the automobile companies or the major banks.

"Today's bottom tax rate--10 percent--is nearly double the rate paid by the rich in 1913." [That's when the federal income tax was imposed as a result of ratification of the 16the amendment] Correlate that with the increase in federal spending, the root of the exhorbitant taxes we pay. Note that most of that spending is for programs and actions that are not constitutionally within the enumerated powers of the federal government.

"The IRS has 114,000 employees…It is twice as big as the CIA and five times the size of the FBI." What part of our tax burden goes to pay for the operations of the IRS? How interesting that Americans are irate over defense spending, but not over spending just to collect federal income taxes?

"Today, the tax code has 17,000 pages, along with hundreds of thousands of pages of court decisions." How can anyone even understand, much less comply, with a tax code like that? Ah, but perhaps that's the point, is it not?

"The 1986 tax act was aimed at simplification. It ended up amending 2,000 sections of the code and creating more than 100 new forms." When Congress or the executive branch undertakes to "simplify" the tax code--or anything else--hold on to your wallets.

Evident in all these tidbits is that the federal government just spends too much, and it does so unconstitutionally, because it assumes powers not enumerated in the Constitution. Some say it's time for a tax revolt.

I think the root of the problem is the federal government's failure to operate within its constitutional limits. Maybe it's time for a revolt, period. Americans need to force the federal government to comply with the Constitution. If we do that, the federal government will spend only for programs within its legal powers, resulting in a drastic reduction in the federal budget.

And while we're at it, let's abolish the federal government's ability to spend money it doesn't have, and make sure that it can't get it by overtaxing us. Maybe government spending should be limited to a certain percentage of the GDP, and the income tax abolished in favor of a more equitable form of taxation.

My suggestion is that only states be given the power to tax (and then, only within well-defined limits), and that they then allocate a certain portion of tax revenues for the operation of the federal government. After the federal government receives tax payments from the states, then Congress can pass a budget limited to what the states give it.

We made a mistake allowing US senators to be elected directly. When chosen by the state legislatures, senators represented the states, as envisioned originally by the founders. This meant that the states could exercise more control over the federal government. So it's time to return to what worked better.

Taxes, abhorrent as they are, are only symptomatic of a federal government out of control and hell-bent on making the United States a totalitarian socialist state. Let's demand a return to a republican form of government with the true federalism spelled out in the Constitution.