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OPINION

End the Income Tax

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
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Tell President Trump to ask Congress to end the federal income tax so that you and I can reach our full potential for wealth.

This weekend, President Trump tweeted that a: “Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced [on] Wednesday.” This is great news. However, as we go through the process of improving the tax code, we must encourage our politicians to do two things:

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1.) Eliminate the unconstitutional federal income tax.

2.) Reduce hidden taxes that politicians eternally use to offset tax “cuts”—namely increases in federal spending.

America turns 241 years old in July. We’re still a “baby” nation in contrast to Rome, which recently celebrated its 2,770th birthday. Now, consider that for the first 126 years of our country’s existence—which is longer than the second half of its existence—there was no such thing as a federal income tax.

How did our country thrive without income taxes for 126 years? Answer: federal spending was significantly lower than it is today. In the early 1900s, government spending accounted for roughly 7% of our GDP; today, federal spending accounts for around 35% of our GDP.

Tom Hanks and Kim Kardashian are more familiar to the average American than tax facts. One in two Americans believes that the federal government relies on personal income taxes to fund at least three quarters of its operating costs, according to a new survey by Ipsos. In reality, income taxes only fund about a third of total government spending.

Most Americans, in other words, greatly overestimate the importance of income taxes. And the only reason there currently is a “need” for income taxes is because our country has dramatically increased overall spending. Solution: eliminate both income taxes and excessive spending.

Not Who We Are

Politicians love to slam policies that they disapprove of as: “Not who we are.” Well, the current tax setup in the United States is certainly not rooted in the foundation of freedom that our Founding Fathers established.

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The federal income tax was implemented via the 16th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913—over 100 years after our Founders wrote the Constitution.

“A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” Sounds like a simple description of the U.S. tax code, right? Yes, and it’s also a direct quote from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Marx wrote that a progressive income tax was the second-most notable requirement for implementing the “Communist revolution.” Great.

Our founders understood that your first piece of private property is your body and the fruits of any labor completed through the toil of your mind and/or body are exclusively yours. All just human law is rooted in natural law (reason) and there is no natural law indicating that the government has a right to the fruits of your labor. Taxing labor is a form of extortion.

Young People: Get Involved Now

A new Census report finds that the majority of Millennials desire full-time employment by the age of 22, however, only 37% find full-time work by age 22.

Thanks to meager economic prospects and high student debt—one in three Millennials is living at home with their parents. Twelve years ago, in 2005, the majority of young people in the majority of states (35 states) “lived independently in their own household,” reports the New York Daily News. Today, the majority of young people live independently in only five states.

34-year-olds with master’s degrees living in their parents’ basement and 28-year-olds with law degrees working as coffee baristas are becoming startlingly common in what should be the Land of Opportunity.

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I realize that only 19% of my generation voted in the 2016 presidential election, but I entreat them to get involved in tax reform now—and demand the elimination of the federal income tax. Otherwise, even when young people do land steady employment, they will struggle to buy a home, start a family, or build a retirement fund if Uncle Sam skims increasingly higher amounts off their income in the form of taxes every year.

Congress has the ultimate power to alter our tax code, but President Trump—like presidents before him—can aim Congress in the right direction by proffering specific tax reform legislation.

Tweet at President Trump and let him know that you support his efforts at tax reform, and particularly wish to see the elimination of income taxes combined with a corresponding decrease in total government spending.

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