In name, it was a tax reform. In point of fact, it was a revolution

In name, it was a tax reform. In point of fact, it was a Revolution

2025-05-01

1954:

In name, it was a tax reform. In point of fact, it was a revolution.

For the Sixteenth Amendment [1913] corroded the American concept of natural rights; ultimately reduced the American citizen to a status of subject, so much so that he is not aware of it; enhanced Executive power to the point of reducing Congress to innocuity; and enabled the central government to bribe the states, once independent units, into subservience. No kingship in the history of the world ever exercised more power than our Presidency, or had more of the people's wealth at its disposal. We have retained the forms and phrases of a republic, but in reality we are living under an oligarchy, not of courtesans, but of bureaucrats.

--- The IncomeTax Root of All Evil by Frank Chodorov (1954)

2025:

"This really is unprecedented," Elizabeth Goitein, the senior director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program, told ABC News.

"We've seen really broad theories of executive power advanced in previous administrations," Goitein said. "There's been a steady trend over the last few decades towards increasingly broad views of executive power, especially after 9/11. But this is unprecedented and it's different in kind, not just in degree." ...

"The separation of powers is probably the most important protection that we have against presidents becoming kings," said Goitein.

--- ABC News

This "trend" started much earlier than a few decades ago. It started in 1913, after passing the Sixteenth Amendment. Goitein seems to be unaware that our Presidency, as Chodorov pointed out, is already more powerful that any kingship in history. The question that should've been asked is what caused such unprecedented power concentration? But I don't think finding the root cause of the problem was the goal of this article.

"Our Framers were envisioning that if a president tried to do things like this, Congress would step in," said Schultz [a constitutional law expert]. "And right now, it looks like partisanship is more powerful than checks and balances."

--- ABC News

Congress that our Framers were referring to was very different from Congress after 1913. Our Framers were incapable of comprehending that their descendants would pass a Constitutional Amendment that would undermine the benefits won by Americans in 1776. They lived at the time when the right of private property was inviolable. That's why direct taxation was explicitly limited in the Constitution: "No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid." The Sixteenth Amendment is what destroyed American tradition of freedom, transferred power from People to "our Presidency", and "reduced Congress to innocuity."

What's the point of articles like this? How can you tell journalism from propaganda? Complaining about the unprecedented concentration of power without addressing (or at least trying to understand) the root cause is not journalism.

To restore traditional American freedom, to make People strong again and government weak, as the Founding Fathers were envisioning, we must limit the government's power to tax. That means, we must repeal the Sixteenth Amendment.

Monero (XMR):
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