Historic thoughts on taxes from the Federalist.com Montag

THE FOUNDATION

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents...." --James Madison

______----********O********----______ FOUNDERS ON TAXATION

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. ... A wise and frugal government...shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. ... Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated. ... Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands?" --Thomas Jefferson ++ "The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling which they overburden the inferior number is a shilling saved to their own pockets. ... A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species. ... Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own." --James Madison ++ "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free." --John Adams ++ "It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. ... If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds." --Alexander Hamilton ++ "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." --Benjamin Franklin

______----********O********----______ INSIGHT ON TAXATION

"Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets." --Ronald Reagan ++ "In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other." --Voltaire ++ "Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer." --Ludwig von Mises ++ "We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." --Winston Churchill ++ "Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." --Calvin Coolidge ++ "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation." --Vladimir Lenin ++ "An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation." --John Marshall ++ "If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute." --Thomas Paine ++ "That most delicious of all privileges -- spending other people's money." --John Randolph of Roanoke ++ "To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection: it is plunder." --Benjamin Disraeli ++ "Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." --Alan Greenspan ++ "A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny." --Calvin Coolidge ++ "Virtually everything is under federal control nowadays except the federal budget." --Herman E. Talmadge ++ "Before we give you billions more, we want to know what you've done with the trillion you've got." -- Les Aspin ++ "The current tax code is a daily mugging." --Ronald Reagan ++ "The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin." --Mark Twain ++ "Income taxes have made more liars out of the American people than golf." --Will Rogers

______----********O********----______ UPRIGHT ON TAXATION

"Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves, politicians. All three need supervision." --Dick Armey ++ "As I watch government at all levels daily eat away at our freedom, I keep thinking how prosperity and government largesse have combined to make most of us fat and lazy and indifferent to, or actually in favor of, the limits being placed on that freedom." --Lyn Nofziger ++ "Any politician who starts shouting election-year demagoguery about the rich and the poor should be asked, 'What about the other 90 percent of the people?'" --Thomas Sowell ++ "The Declaration of Independence, the words that launched our nation -- 1,300 words. The Bible, the word of God -- 773,000 words. The Tax Code, the words of politicians -- 7,000,000 words -- and growing!" --Steve Forbes ++ "The government taxes you when you bring home a paycheck. It taxes you when you make a phone call. It taxes you when you turn on a light. It taxes you when you sell a stock. It taxes you when you fill your car with gas. It taxes you when you ride a plane. It taxes you when you get married. Then it taxes you when you die. This is taxual insanity and it must end." --J. C. Watts, Jr. ++ "Today the percentage of taxpayers who rely on professional tax preparers is at an all-time high. The 67 percent of tax filers who do not itemize may think they avoid compliance costs, which include nagging uncertainty about whether one has properly complied with a tax code about the meaning of which experts differ. But everyone pays the cost of the tax system's vast drag on the economy." --George Will ++ "Give me a break -- They say taxes are inevitable ... like death. At least death doesn't come every year." --John Stossel