UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide,
I agree with you that the left plays unconscionable word games with important legal language to the severe detriment of our culture and law. (What kind of pathetic audacity could have led anyone to parse the meaning of the word “is”?)
But the “Social Security Food Stamps” example you provided is not one that actually happened. - But one that might have happened were there a Balance Budget Amendment that exempted Social Security funding. Perhaps it would happen. But you can see the clear window such a balanced budget amendment would have given to those aberrations.
The example you provided in your earlier post, used the word “tax” - which would be a clear and undeniable contradiction to the Amendment and would therefore be unconstitutional.
Can you provide a hypothetical example where Congress used language that would not so obviously contradict the Constitution were it to have the 28th Amendment I am proposing? I do not believe the language window you suggest exits.
You haven’t ruled out a VAT tax, a tax based on people’s age, height, skin tone or other biometrics besides head-count. You could have a fixed tax based on occupation without regard to a person’s actual income. The ways are infinite to avoid the terms you used. And then you could have very similar taxes that go by different names. Is an ability-to-pay tax based on wealth and income a tax meant by either? Or they could end all taxes and just inflate your money away by printing it weekly based on your income and knock some zeroes off new currency every few years.
They could base the tax on state revenues in progressive amounts and declare catastrophes whenever they need to. They could tax the states 90%, forcing the states to confiscate your property. When the Dems and Reps collude, there is nothing withheld from them that they imagine to do. You just have to bring the Towel of Babel down on all of them and let them play with words as they scatter to the four corners.