Wealth Taxes Quotes
At the beginning of the First World War the senator called for surplus profits taxes on business to finance the war effort. President Wilson preferred bond financing and the business community castigated the Senator for not supporting the President's position. Later, when Wilson adopted the senator's view and called for additional taxes:
FDR’s attempt to cap WWII income with any excess going to pay for the war failed as the wealthy in the country pulled out “all the stops” to defeat the proposal. Roosevelt was able, however, to get a maximum tax bracket of 88 percent on all income over $200,000 which was less onerous to the very rich but still terrible. They could not defeat that proposal.
The founder was Charles E. Coughlin, 1891-1979, a demagogic Catholic Priest who drafted the principles and invited others to join him. Hundreds of thousands did in this organization which began in idealism, and ended in scandal and hate mongering, so much so that Father Coughlin was ordered off the radio and out of politics by the Catholic Church. The National Union in 1936 had morphed into the Union Party which ran Presidential candidates in the 1936 election. In this principle there were two purposes: First to have the wealthy sacrifice something in time of war. Historically wealth could keep a man from the draft if he so wanted. Second, when the company went to war the argument went it was the rich who could profit who had more political influence and could make the war. This way, they would pay a high price and might oppose war. Many of Coughlin’s followers were pro-German and wanted to keep the country out of the European war.
