# equal tax question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 18, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equal-tax-question/477698 "2008-12-18T03:44:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equal-tax-question/477698/21 "2010-10-04T15:22:46Z")
> [@hungry4des](#): > > Anyone know this history behind what brought about the 16th Amendment? It’s almost like Congress wrote it while they were upset for not being able to raise the federal budget without their constituents getting upset. > > Just look at the language - > 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. > > It’s like an upset teenager doing exactly the oppsite of what it’s smarter parents said it could do. “I will do what I want, how I want!” That’s pretty much it. The Supreme Court ruled that income taxes were unconstitutional. So TPTB (thanks, President Taft, you twit) rammed through the 16th Amendment. And the 17th Amendment, which was just as bad an idea. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equal-tax-question/477698/22 "2010-10-04T15:26:49Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > > [@hungry4des](#): > > > > Anyone know this history behind what brought about the 16th Amendment? It’s almost like Congress wrote it while they were upset for not being able to raise the federal budget without their constituents getting upset. > > > > Just look at the language - > > 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. > > > > It’s like an upset teenager doing exactly the oppsite of what it’s smarter parents said it could do. “I will do what I want, how I want!” > > That’s pretty much it. The Supreme Court ruled that income taxes were unconstitutional. So TPTB (thanks, President Taft, you twit) rammed through the 16th Amendment. And the 17th Amendment, which was just as bad an idea. Damned them. How dare they pass an amendment through democratic means. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equal-tax-question/477698/23 "2010-10-04T16:11:59Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > > [@Clothahump](#): > > > > That’s pretty much it. The Supreme Court ruled that income taxes were unconstitutional. So TPTB (thanks, President Taft, you twit) rammed through the 16th Amendment. And the 17th Amendment, which was just as bad an idea. > > Damned them. How dare they pass an amendment through democratic means. It wasn’t by democratic means. Didn’t you just read that Taft rammed it through? Boy was he a good rammer, though. > [@](#): > > In July 1909, a proposed amendment to remove the apportionment requirement was passed unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 318 to 14 in the House. And those 36 state legislatures that also had to ratify it, well, they certainly did it against the will of the people. Unless those people were Progressives or others who had been calling for this for years. But they don’t count. Nor do the 29 states that had already taken the appointment power of Senators away from state legislatures before the 17th Amendment was passed. Nope, that was rammed through too. As were the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th Amendments. No Amendment was ever passed because it was popular among the people. How could that happen when a two-thirds vote of both houses and three-quarters of the states have to approve? One thing you have to admire the founding fathers for. They made super-easy to ram through amendments against the will of Real Americans. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equal-tax-question/477698/24 "2010-10-04T22:26:00Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The Supreme Court ruled that income taxes were unconstitutional. No it bloody didn’t; it ruled that a certain part of the specific income tax enacted by the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 was unconstitutional. The specific issue was whether a tax on income derived from property (rents and dividends, mainly) counted as a “direct tax” or an “indirect tax”. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equal-tax-question/477698/25 "2010-10-04T22:45:30Z")
One of my favorite stories relative to flat tax is about a British judge back in the days when divorce was rare in Britain. The judge says to the husband, “A divorce will cost you £5,000. You may object that you don’t have £5,000, but I have to tell you that’s the cost. A duke could not get a divorce for less. We are a not country with different laws for the rich and the poor.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equal-tax-question/477698.md?page=1)