Uniform Taxation

Section 8 of Article I states the specific things that the Congress is empowered to do. It begins with “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”

Taxes are sums of money levied (collected) upon incomes, property, or sales of goods. Duties are taxes imposed by law on the import or export of goods. An impost is “a tax, tribute, duty; a customs duty.” Excises are taxes levied on the manufacture, sale, or consumption of commodities such as liquor and tobacco, as well as taxes levied for a license to pursue certain employments or sports.

We the People understand that the funds to “pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare” of the nation have to come from somewhere. But just as our individual households budget our income and try to live within our means, we expect our government to do the same.

Unfortunately that is not the case.

And what about the phrase, “all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States”? Uniform is defined as “identical, consistent, unvarying.” How does our current system of taxation fit that definition, especially in the case of income taxes? The majority of income taxes are paid by a very small percent of wage earners. And as we discovered early in the current administration, many government officials who make substantial salaries are paying NO taxes at all!

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” --Frederic Bastiat