Federal Tax Quotes
What is interesting is at the time and today there are few politicians who would not agree completely, including all the members of Congress. Yet every word of the absurdly complex and unfair tax law was written and passed by some Congress and signed by some President. Congress could change it any time it wants to. The problem is that ut while all agree that the status quo is terrible, there is no agreement on what the correct solution would be, and any proposed change would be assaulted by the lobbyists of the special interests who benefit from the status quo. In that sense it is just like Health Care Reform. When a change is finally crafted and achieves a majority of Congress, each change has been trashed by so many vested interest that the public is not sure the reform will be better then the terrible system that existed before.
The original constitution allowed federal taxes on the states or on the people to be levied only proportional to the number of people in the state—a so called “head tax” of “poll tax.” This was a very regressive form of taxation since the rich could only be taxed the same amount as the poor even though they could afford much more and the poor could hardly afford anything at all. This amendment paved the way for the income tax where a percentage of income could now be taxed.
