Saturday, December 4, 2010

Congress Should Lose Control Over Taxation

The United States Congress gets to decide how much Americans pay in federal income tax. Unfortunately, as the events of the past week have shown, Congress cannot be trusted with the responsibility and power to decide how much the American people should be taxed. The solution to ensuring that the will of the American people is followed is to take away Congress' power to decide how much tax Americans will pay.

Congress' power to decide how much Americans are taxed comes from the 16th Amendment:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
While it is Constitutional and legal for Congress to currently set income tax rates, the 16th Amendment was  ratified in 1913, and has become outdated. The 16th Amendment should be repealed and replaced with a new Amendment (the 28th) that provides for a referendum with each election of members of the House of Representatives (every two years) where the American people can decide what tax burden they are willing to accept. The American people would have the power to increase, decrease, or keep taxes the same, and Congress would no longer be able to play political games that run the risk of damaging the country's economy.

1 comment:

  1. The American people keep getting screwed by this Congress. I think that one issue would be that if people cut taxes, the Congress people would still allocate the money wastefully. Congress won't give their earmarks up, and even voted against a bill to ban them.

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