Free Republic

Americans may be able to regain control over their federal government by moving their respective individual state legislatures to invalidate the 16th and 17th Amendments to the United States Constitution. Essentially, this is a vote to reverse ratification of an Amendment without a Constitutional Convention. Repeal of the 16th Amendment starves the federal beast by depriving it of its consumption of money from the states and the taxpayers through income. States could exercise better control over how or even if their money is spent. Repeal of the 17th Amendment makes United States senators directly appointed by the state legislatures, as...

Who's ready for another major shift in the IRS' official story? In recent days, Darrell Issa's Democratic counterpart on the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, has been telling anyone who will listen that Congress' IRS "witch hunt" is over and resolved. His absurd assertions -- from which he's edged away slightly -- smack of desperation, especially considering that new developments continue to arise. Why, here's one just now, and it's a biggie: The Internal Revenue Service's screening of groups seeking tax-exempt status was broader and lasted longer than has been previously disclosed, the new head of the agency said Monday....

While many Americans struggle to earn a living or barely scrape by on unemployment and live in fear of IRS audits, illegal aliens and non-resident aliens have gained cumulative millions off our taxpayer money. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), in 2011, the IRS sent more than $46 million in tax refunds to 23,994 “unauthorized” alien workers who all listed the same address in Atlanta, GA. The Atlanta address wasn’t the only one that received millions in tax refunds housing thousands; there were actually four addresses in Atlanta and six in other states that were issued...

I’d say it’s official; President Obama’s Watergate has arrived.  And the witty question originally formed for Nixon’s big scandal can now be re-applied to President Plausible Deniability, “What did he not know and when did he not know it?”  While I do think that IRS-Gate spells the end of this President’s ability to effectively advance the liberal agenda, I do not see an impeachment on the horizon; at least not for Barack Obama – but perhaps for the Sixteenth Amendment.The recent parade of citizen witnesses to congressional hearings has laid bare the raw suffering that inevitably comes from tolerating the...

Testifying on Capitol Hill Tuesday, witnesses from Tea Party, pro-life and patriotic educational groups from around the country testified about their experience of intimidation and targeting from the Internal Revenue Service. Witnesses described being sent hundreds of pages from the IRS asking invasive questions about members, books, contents of prayers and the names of anyone attending meetings, including children. "The IRS sought documentation of our meetings, rallies, events, or candidate forums. That included video and audio transcriptions, notes, copies of all handouts; the political party of speakers, and an “issues” list. The IRS sought identifying information on employees; data on...

THE HISTORY OF THE SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT by Dr. W. Cleon Skousen Strange as it may seem, the Sixteenth Amendment (which gave the American people the affliction of confiscatory income taxes) was never supposed to have passed. It was introduced by the Republicans as part of a political scheme to trick the Democrats, but it backfired. Here's the story. The Founding Fathers had rejected income taxes (or any other direct taxes) unless they were apportioned to each state according to population. Nevertheless, an income tax was levied during the Civil War and upheld by the Supreme Court on the somewhat tenuous...

It is an admirable expression of loyalty, of devotion and duty towards one's own country. A pledge, currently spoken throughout the nation countless times each and everyday- "To uphold and defend the Constitution of these United States of America." Though it is in truth, a hollow pledge, as it is without even modest contemplation, it is devoid of any meaning or substance. For if it only requires us to THINK, such a pledge could not today be even uttered free of base hypocrisy. For who among us would remain willing to uphold and defend that which has so often withered...

In 1913, the United States passed the 16th Amendment and then enacted the income tax. Intended as a way of replacing revenues because of the perceived need to reduce the income from tariffs, it was only intended to apply to the wealthiest of the citizens. However Congress saw the potential advantages of the income tax to reward their friends and influence behavior. One of the reasons that Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto insisted on a “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax” is that an income tax allows a government to directly control people much more than any other form of...

I think we need a serious movement to repeal the 16th amendment which is the source of the IRS's power and by extension the progressives.

The 1913 Income Tax In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It was a fairly short amendment, as such things go, weighing in at a whopping 30 words. It reads as follows: 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 of enumeration. It was a simple little thing, with rather large consequences for the republic. Prior to the income tax being instituted, the United States government managed to fund itself with various excise taxes, and...

Sentinel events arise in everyone’s personal history like a volcano in the middle of a barren plain – obvious and undeniable. I was taking a music composition course in the bell tower on the quadrangle at the University of Michigan when President Kennedy was shot. As the giant bells inexplicably began to toll, the date and time were etched forever in my memory. While an intern at Yale-New Haven Hospital, I watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon from the house staff break room. And on an otherwise ordinary morning in September 2001, I watched, horrified, a small TV...

Otter shifts stand on 17th Amendment repeal; The Spokesman-Review Idaho Gov. Butch Otter declared during a political debate today that he doesn’t favor repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - though he’s been sharply critical of the amendment for the past year, including in his keynote speech at a Tea Party rally in Spokane in April. The amendment shifted selection of U.S. senators from state Legislatures to a vote of the people, and repealing it is a plank in Idaho’s Republican Party platform. The governor’s comments came as he and Democratic challenger Keith Allred sparred over everything...

It's official. TPMmuckraker's favorite ex-convict ex-Congressman Jim Traficant will appear on the ballot for his old House seat in Ohio. A county board of elections ruled today, in a meeting that lasted less than a minute, that Traficant has enough signatures to make it on the ballot. Traficant, who was a Democrat while serving in the House, is running in the 17th District as an independent against Rep. Tim Ryan (D). Ryan replaced Traficant in 2002 when he was kicked out of Congress over 10 felony convictions for bribery, racketeering, tax evasion and other charges. Traficant was released from prison...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Earl Taylor has spent 31 years teaching that "the Founding Fathers have answers to nearly every problem we have in America today." Only in recent months has he found so many eager students. On a recent Saturday, he held the rapt attention of 70 of them. The eight-hour seminar held at a roadside inn here was one of half a dozen "Making of America" sessions nationwide that day, all sponsored by a little-known organization based in Idaho. Two years ago, Taylor, president of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, made about 35 trips to speak to small...

Discussions centering on the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America have been growing in frequency over the past year. They have been taking place since it was proposed in the early years of the 20th century. But, events over the past 15 months have sparked a rapid rise in the regularity of this dialogue. For those who are not fully familiar with the 17th Amendment, its ratification switched the manner by which each state’s U.S. senators are selected. Originally, the Constitution was written specifying that both senators from every state were to be elected by...

Though the Glenn Beck clips are classic examples of the nonsense this nitwit pushes out all day on his radio and TV shows, the interview with Samantha Bee from the CPAC future is the funniest thing I ever did see. Gunfloss... All independent voters should be rounded up, hog tied, have their eyelids stapled open like Alex and forced to watch this 3 minute video. One viewing would be enough for these 40% of the voters to end of all this crazy right-wing crap once and for all.

At around the turn of the century, before or just after World War I, the progressive amendments were passed. Not since the post Civil War era was there ever such a speedy passage of amendments to the Constitution or since. In a period of about 10 years or so, we saw four radical amendments passed and ratified into the Constitution. They are amendments 16, 17, 18, and 19. The era in which they were passed was one of optimism among the American Left and many of the influential leaders. New areas of science were opening up as well as new...

After several courtroom battles, Marrita Murphy lost. Her case attracted widespread interest because it involved an important question -- and also because she initially won a major round in court. The issue: Should Ms. Murphy have to pay federal income tax on a $70,000 award she received from a former employer for emotional distress and loss of reputation? She argued the award wasn't taxable. She paid the tax -- more than $20,000 -- and later sought a refund. In 2006, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in her favor. The...

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.

Tonight, Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor announced an update to the House Schedule for this week. H.R. 1388, The Give Act, is scheduled for Wednesday. Note: The title is “Anticipated Floor Schedule.” The Whipping Post states, “On Wednesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business. H.R. 1388 - Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (Subject to a Rule) (Sponsored by Rep. McCarthy (NY) / Education and Labor Committee)