The Request Line is Open

Doug Kenline, writing on his own blog, asks

Walter, please check out givemeliberty.org and blog a few of your thoughts regarding this letter written by Bob Schulz.

Schulz covers a lot of ground in that piece, and I won't try to comment on all the points he makes. Let me make a few more general observations and highlight a couple of things Schulz wrote.

The Constitution is becoming a dead letter.

I think every libertarian would agree with that statement. Most budget items that pass through congress are not authorized by the Constitution.

Most people believe that the income tax system is legal and that the revenue from the tax is used in the public interest.

That's an important point, and I would add that most people want that to be true.

Researchers Benson, Schiff and others have been incarcerated because they asked the government to show them the law that gives the government the constitutional and statutory authority to impose an income tax on the people.

I've read Schiff and others who share a similar philosophy about the tax, and what they're saying is loopholes in the law exist that make it illegal for the IRS to collect income tax they way they do. This may or may not be true, and the IRS says it isn't, natch, but it's not important. If the courts ever do find the income tax to be illegal, and many people stop paying, Congress will quickly act to close the loopholes. When they do they will act with the support of the people, who as noted above, want the government to spend that money in the public interest. At best a handfull of lucky resistors will avoid paying the tax and beat the system in court. Bully for them.

Note that what I'm not saying here is that the IRS doesn't run over some taxpayers, and sometimes uses unfair and downright nasty collection methods.

I'm saying that in order to end the income tax you have to convince the voting public that the tax is bad, who in turn elect representatives who will overturn the tax. Doesn't seem too likely these days, does it?