How about No Taxes at All?

By Gary Horne

Recent debates about who pays taxes and how much miss the point. Instead, people should be asking why the current system allows unlimited power to tax, restricted only by the "wisdom" of Congress. The taxing power of the federal government was debated prior to ratification of the Constitution. The Pennsylvania minority, who voted against ratification, raised the issue of unlimited taxing power in their dissenting addressi: By virtue of their power of taxation, Congress may command the whole, or any part of the property of the people. Many did not see the danger of out-of-control government spending, thinking the Constitution would limit for what purposes taxes could be used. This point of view was addressed in the Anti-Federalist Papersii (Brutus, Essay VI, 27 December, 1787): But it is said, by some of the advocates of this system, "That the idea that Congress can levy taxes at pleasure, is false, and the suggestion wholly unsupported: that the preamble to the constitution is declaratory of the purposes of the union, and the.... (Read Full Article)