Return to our roots
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Portrait of Alexander Hamilton
Today's tax system is deeply flawed. Many people are overtaxed, others are under-taxed, some are never taxed, and some live off others' taxes. No matter what category you may fit under, something is wrong with the taxes you pay and the system that makes you pay them. As Alan Keyes states, "The income tax is a twentieth-century socialist experiment that has failed. Before the income tax was imposed on us just 80 years ago, government had no claim to our income. Only sales, excise, and tariff taxes were allowed" (Alan Keyes on Tax Reform). Although the modern tax system looks hopelessly beyond repair, there is still an answer. It is found in the American people and their ability to move forward and reform the injustices of the current government tax system.
The solution has, in fact, been found! It's called the fair tax, or the National Sales Tax. Although it may seem like a novel idea for our country, it has been around since the nation's birth. Alexander Hamilton, in his original proposition for a federal tax system, stated this, "There is no method of steering clear of this inconvenience, but by authorizing the national government to raise its own revenues in its own way. Imposts, excises, and, in general, all duties upon articles of consumption, may be compared to a fluid, which will, in time, find its level with the means of paying them. The amount to be contributed by each citizen will in a degree be at his own option, and can be regulated by an attention to his resources. The rich may be extravagant, the poor can be frugal; and private oppression may always be avoided by a judicious selection of objects proper for such impositions" (History of Taxation). In the midst of our debt-ridden economy and the failure of the present income tax, we need to reflect on the principles that our country was founded upon; we need to re-examine what we have become, and re-evaluate what we need to do in order to accomplish the original goals that our founders had envisioned. We need a just tax, a fair tax.
The solution has, in fact, been found! It's called the fair tax, or the National Sales Tax. Although it may seem like a novel idea for our country, it has been around since the nation's birth. Alexander Hamilton, in his original proposition for a federal tax system, stated this, "There is no method of steering clear of this inconvenience, but by authorizing the national government to raise its own revenues in its own way. Imposts, excises, and, in general, all duties upon articles of consumption, may be compared to a fluid, which will, in time, find its level with the means of paying them. The amount to be contributed by each citizen will in a degree be at his own option, and can be regulated by an attention to his resources. The rich may be extravagant, the poor can be frugal; and private oppression may always be avoided by a judicious selection of objects proper for such impositions" (History of Taxation). In the midst of our debt-ridden economy and the failure of the present income tax, we need to reflect on the principles that our country was founded upon; we need to re-examine what we have become, and re-evaluate what we need to do in order to accomplish the original goals that our founders had envisioned. We need a just tax, a fair tax.