Reflections for Tax Day

George Washington once truly opined, "No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant."  While this is true, we should always attempt to make taxation as fair as possible and strictly confined to its constitutional limits. Sadly, our current system is both unfair and unconstitutional in a number of ways (look to graduated income taxes for a good example).


Government is force, and taxation come at the point of a gun. If you question the truth of that statement, refuse to comply with tax collection and you will see its truth. It should be a primary goal of ours to only levy taxes based on consumption and confine all taxation to what is necessary and proper to meet the demands of government's specified constitutional duties.

Based on one's own humanity, one has the right to keep the fruits of one's own labor. Any attempt to remove that fruit without the consent of those being taxed is plunder--legal or otherwise. As members of a free society we must strive to defeat this plunder.

My problem is not necessarily with taxation. In a constitutional society we have agreed to the collection of some of our wealth to meet certain pre-agreed upon government functions. These functions are clearly defined in our constitution. Therefore, being taxed for government functions and services not defined in the Constitution is where the problem lies. 

Because we have gone far beyond constitutional boundaries in the functions and services of our government, we now have a bigger bill to foot than we should. Our problem is not that we are undertaxed--quite the opposite. Rather, our problem is that our government is involved in unconstitutional activities that demand more of our money. This is wrong, and it is illegal.

Any fight against taxation should find its battle cry in a demand for a return to constitutional government and a stop to the provision of unconstitutional services--charitable or otherwise. Not only can we not afford to meet the current unconstitutional demands of government with our taxes, liberty cannot endure such demands.

Was Joe Stack a Terrorist? by the Southern Avenger

Tea Party Speech

For any interested in my speech from yesterday's local Tax Day Tea Party. Here it is.

Tax Day Quotations

In honor of our beloved tax day, here are some quotations on the subject...

Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay.--Milton Friedman

The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.--John S. Coleman

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.--Herman Wouk

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.--Dr. Laurence J. Peter

There is no such thing as a good tax.--Winston Churchill

To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury.--Benjamin Tucker

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.--Calvin Coolidge

 Taxes may be levied for public necessity, but beyond this “to impose them upon the common folk without cause is tyrannical extortion.”--John Calvin

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson

"To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.'For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union." --Thomas Jefferson

"What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue." --Thomas Paine

"If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute."--Thomas Paine

“Taxation: how the sheep are shorn.”--Edward Abbey

   “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”--James Madison