Liberals love the income tax; it's where they get their power over everyone and the money with which they can line their pockets and direct social & economic change in our country. Their mantra has become "paying one's fair share" despite the obvious evidence to the contrary in their policies. The upper income earners in this country pay the largest majority of income taxes received by the federal government. It's undeniable although the liberals are very good at denying facts and getting people to believe them. In 'honor' of April 15, let's take a look at the income tax in this country.
The modern day income tax began in February of 1913 when Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, thanks to the administration of Republican William Howard Taft. The amendment had come to life in 1909 when the Republican controlled House of Representatives passed the amendment on a 318 to 14 vote. I wish I could thank those 14 for standing up for us.
The first tax bill came from the Woodrow Wilson administration. Wilson had made the income tax a key issue in his campaign, while the Republican party platform was silent on the income tax in 1912 but championed it in later years. A significant portion of the Republicans in 1912 wanted a pro-income tax plank in the party platform but it was defeated.
So now we've had 102 years of income tax. In 1913 the top tax bracket was 7%, with a range beginning at 1%. Can you imagine having to only pay 1%? Now our top tax rate is 39.6% with a minimum rate of 10%. The top tax bracket threshold was $11.8 million (in 2015 dollars) while today if you earn more than $464,850 you pay the top rate. Total tax revenue in that first year was $16.9 billion while today it will exceed $3 trillion and we'll be at $4 trillion by several estimates next year.
The standard deduction for a family was $94,837 while today it's only $12,600. And can you imagine there were only 400 pages of tax laws?! Today there are almost 74,000. There is no way anyone can honestly say they know the tax code or could enforce it evenly.
IF the liberals were truly fighting for the middle class, as they claim to be, then why don't we go back to a standard family deduction of $94,000? Then they really would be getting the 'rich' to pay their 'fair share' and if we went back to a tax bracket range of 1%-7%, the middle class would be keeping a huge chunk of their paycheck. Then they could likely afford to send their kids to college, pay their bills, take vacations, and live the life that we desire.
And the economy would take off; small businesses would be opening left and right, taking people off of the public dole by creating jobs. But instead we have a system that punishes success, that makes it difficult to succeed in the early years especially. That takes capital out of the hands of the middle class and encourages big businesses to expand, merge and drive small competitors out of business. I was talking to a client/rancher this week and they are worried about leaving their ranch to their kids when they pass away. The taxes could be a huge burden for the heirs to bear, forcing them to borrow money to pay them and put an additional expense on an already strained budget.
Richard Byrd, in 1913 the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, gave a prediction of what he imagined the new income tax system would become, turns out he was spot on. He said:
"A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man's business; the eye of the Federal inspector will be in every man's counting house. The law will of necessity have inquisitorial features, it will provide penalties, it will create complicated machinery. Under it men will be hailed into courts distant from their homes.
Heavy fines imposed by distant and unfamiliar tribunals will constantly menace the tax payer. An army of Federal inspectors, spies and detectives will descend upon the state. Who of us who have had knowledge of the doings of the Federal officials in the Internal Revenue service can be blind to what will follow?"
Boy, was he prophetic.