Demanding Accountability

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Paying Federal
Income Taxes?

By Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter

USA - Volumes have been written on the subject of paying or not paying the federal income tax even though the subject is very simple. Our founders didn't create an income tax because to do so would have been totally against the principles of freedom, just as it would have paved the way (which it now has) for absolute federal control.

A number of our founding fathers warned us regarding the dangers of a powerful central government. We have all witnessed the alarming growth of America's federal government and the control that it has over us, but most fail to even consider whether the growth is right or wrong, because most Americans have been lulled into a sense of false security.

Our public schools stopped teaching the Constitution and Bill of Rights (supreme law of the land) years ago in order to dumb down Americans to the fact that the supreme law of the land contradicts a great number of acts we are witnessing our government perform.

From the Internal Revenue Service, to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Education, Department
of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, U. S. Forest Service, etc., etc., we have watched this government violate the very law that was created by our founders to protect us from the extreme control these unconstitutional agencies have over us.

The founders cherished freedom and many gave their very lives and those of their families to secure this way of life. We, on the other hand, have allowed the federal government to squander our freedom and openly ridicule those who created this foundation for America. Our Supreme Court stated, “It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.”

Limitations on Congress –
the Federal Government

The Constitution's Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 addresses Congress and states: “To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings”(emphasis added). This portion of our supreme law makes it very clear that the above mentioned agencies were created and are operating in direct violation of law. What about the millions of acres of federal forests? We have been so comfortable and complacent over the past few decades that we have allowed the federal government to turn “not exceeding ten Miles square” into millions of acres and they have accomplished the same with each and every unconstitutional agency they have created, including the Internal Revenue Service. Thomas Paine described our apathy very well in his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense, that: “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right.”

The main reason for the founders placing restrictions on the feds is quite simple; they knew that the more control, the less freedom – they had all experienced the total control that Great Britain had over them. How many of us even remember the Boston Tea Party - taxation without representation? Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic, but will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom. Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.” Countless Americans today are completely unaware that our founders revolted, the Constitution was written and America was created due to heavy taxation and the widespread use of “Debtor Prisons.”

A look inside the walls of the federal prison system today exposes the fact that thousands of Americans have been placed there because they refused to pay a tax on income which is being unconstitutionally applied to them. This proves exactly what Jefferson wrote about over two hundred years ago – we have lost the memory of freedom.

Whatever government services we have, they are not being financed by the income tax. A part of the Grace Commission Report (below) proves that none of the personal income tax goes to pay for any government services and that it is used to pay only the interest on the national debt. This report was requested by President Ronald Reagan to see exactly where our federal dollars go. Please take note of the underlined section.

Let's read what the Grace Commission Report of January 12, 1984 has to say:

“Resistance to additional income taxes would be even more widespread if people were aware that:

One-third of all their taxes are consumed by waste and inefficiency in the Federal Government as we identify in our survey.

Another one-third of all their taxes escapes collection from others as the underground economy blossoms in direct proportion to tax increases and places even more pressure on law abiding taxpayers, promoting still more underground economy - a vicious cycle that must be broken.

With two-thirds of everyone's personal income taxes wasted or not collected, 100 percent of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the Federal debt and by Federal Government contributions to transfer payments. In other words, all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services which taxpayers expect from their Government.”

We are all aware that the Government wastes money. Here's a small *list of how these wastrels foolishly squander it - 2005:

• The federal government spends $23 billion annually on special interest pork projects such as grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or funds to combat teenage "goth" culture in Blue Springs, Missouri.

• Washington spends tens of billions of dollars on failed and outdated programs such as the Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Geological Survey and Economic Development Association.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development's $3.3 billion in overpayments in 2001 accounted for over 10 percent of the department's total budget.

• The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets, and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.

• Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.

Examples of wasteful duplication include:

342 economic development programs;
130 programs serving the disabled;
130 programs serving at-risk youth;
90 early childhood development programs;
75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities;
and 72 federal programs dedicated to assuring safe water.

The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses, and 40% of this goes to Fortune 500 companies.

The Medicare program pays as much as eight times the cost that other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.

*These few examples were obtained by Brian Riedl who is Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

Who should be held accountable for this waste? Are you really so comfortable in your lifestyle that you can't see the forest for the trees? Or, do you see the forest, and are just so complacent that you're not going to do anything about it? Are you afraid that if you learn something you might have to do something? Do you really think that ignorance is bliss? You're not going to stand up for what is right until your ox is being gored? Is this truly the mentality of most Americans today? Who's protecting We The People? It certainly isn't the government. So, who is the real enemy today? As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

There are three kinds of people in the world: Those who make things happen, those who watch others make things happen and those who don't even know things are happening. Let's make sure that we the readers of this paper are the ones who will make things happen.

This country was founded on FREEDOM, period. We cannot be free if we have these rogue agencies breathing down our necks at every turn. We cannot be free if we cannot take home 100% of our receipts. We cannot be free if we are slaves to any part of this government, nor can we be free with involuntary servitude being lorded over our heads, as per the 13th Amendment. According to Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition: Involuntary servitude - “The condition of one who is compelled by force, coercion, or imprisonment, and against his will, to labor for another, whether he is paid or not. Slavery, peonage, or compulsory labor for debts; all of which are prohibited by the 13th Amendment.”

If the government takes a portion of your labor by withholding money you rightfully earned to provide for you and your family, isn't that a form of slavery and a violation of the 13th Amendment? We cannot be free without the right of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. These rights are being stripped away on a daily basis.

Now, close your eyes and imagine this country without the IRS. Imagine the fathers of this country bringing home 100% of their receipts so they can adequately provide for their households. Imagine this country “free” from government control.

Government funding is a legitimate aspect of government and of course our founding fathers were very well aware of that. That's why they made sure that Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 was a part of the Constitution - “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;” (emphasis added)

Previously in this article we listed just a few ways of how the government wastes billions of your hard-earned dollars. How do any of those wasteful expenditures "provide for the general Welfare of the United States"? How can a progressive income tax, where one person pays a higher percentage because he earns more be "uniform throughout the United States"? The federal income tax is being unconstitutionally applied to every working man and woman in this country.

The time has come for each of us to do our part to turn this country around, and if you think that there's nothing you can do we'll leave you with these final thoughts:

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
--Edmund Burke

"Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."
--John Quincy Adams

"They that would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
--Ben Franklin

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
--Thomas Jefferson

"There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation."
--James Madison

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine

"If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."
--Noah Webster

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."
--Daniel Webster

Editor's Note: We will never solve any problem by feeding it or ignoring it.

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