tjcmd
Retired
Good discussion and without many ad hominem attacks. As you were, WITH A GUN!
A nation cannot long exist without revenues. Destitute of this essential support, it must resign its independence, and sink into the degraded condition of a province. This is an extremity to which no government will of choice accede. Revenue, therefore, must be had at all events.
...
As the necessities of the State, nevertheless, must be satisfied in some mode or other, the defect of other resources must throw the principal weight of public burdens on the possessors of land. And as, on the other hand, the wants of the government can never obtain an adequate supply, unless all the sources of revenue are open to its demands, the finances of the community, under such embarrassments, cannot be put into a situation consistent with its respectability or its security.
The conclusion is, that there must be interwoven, in the frame of the government, a general power of taxation, in one shape or another.
Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and motion, and enables it to perform its most essential functions. A complete power, therefore, to procure a regular and adequate supply of it, as far as the resources of the community will permit, may be regarded as an indispensable ingredient in every constitution
Serious question tcjmd - have you ever read the Federalist Papers? It's pretty much the entire debate on the purpose and role of the federal government as the founding fathers saw it, laid out in detailed arguments.
They are tremendously interesting reads even now.
The Federalist Papers are great and all, but they shouldn't be conflated with the whole of the Founding Fathers' intentions. They were written, after all, to convince the other half. It's not like they all got together and wrote them as a consensus statement.
um, sort of but not really
Perhaps I'm being cavalier with the word 'half', but they were written to promote ratification of the Constitution, which faced serious opposition. So you're going to have to spell what you mean out for me.
Yes you do. The effective tax rate for the top one percent is something like 29.4 so you have to be making an incredible amount of money to have a rate of 35%