Posted by
Civis on Monday, September 17, 2007 12:31:30 PM
I tried to find ways to put my feelings about the announcement that Hillary Clinton will unveil HillaryCare redux (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296997,00.html) in my own words. I wanted to capture the fact that these income redistribution and forced entry programs run counter to the founding principles of the USA. But you know what, who the heck am I? I’ll let Thomas Jefferson take this one. Per the US Treasury website:
Though social policies sometimes governed the course of tax policy even in the early days of the Republic, the nature of these policies did not extend either to the collection of taxes so as to equalize incomes and wealth, or for the purpose of redistributing income or wealth. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote regarding the "general Welfare" clause:
To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his father has acquired too much, in order to spare to others who (or whose fathers) have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, "to guarantee to everyone a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."
http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/taxes/ustax.shtml
I figure someone with a memorial in Washington, DC, and his face carved into a mountain could put it better. History is empowering. It’s a shame that more people don’t feel that way.
PS..
While on the US Treasury website's history of taxation, I found the statement below interesting.
Prior to the enactment of the income tax (1913), most citizens were able to pursue their private economic affairs without the direct knowledge of the government. Individuals earned their wages, businesses earned their profits, and wealth was accumulated and dispensed with little or no interaction with government entities. The income tax fundamentally changed this relationship, giving the government the right and the need to know about all manner of an individual or business' economic life.
One more reason to support the Fair Tax (http://www.fairtax.org).