Quote:Yes, I agree the government has the right to levy a tax to support the government. My equal protection argument is that the government needs to apply that tax fairly. "Fairly" is the word in question. You consider it fair to burden 10% of the citizens with 80% of the taxes. I don't. And, as I've pointed out in other writing here, being a wage earner is in no way equal to being wealthy. The burden of taxation is unfairly distributed across wage earners, and even more unfairly distributed if you consider taxes paid in relation to net worth.
There is nothing in either the constitution or the 16th amendment specifically that says an income tax must be in precise proportion to one's income. Nor is there any mention whatsoever, in the constitution or in my argument, about weath (as related to income taxes). Since the power to tax based on income is granted to the government, there does not seem to be any basis for the claim that it is unconsitutional that this income tax be progressive. If it is the case that any person, all other factors being equal, earns the same quantity of money as another, they pay the same quantity of taxes. That is, to my mind, fairness. There is only the obligation to treat people equally, not the dollars they earn equally.
Clearly the government of the United States agrees with me, because they levy progressive income taxes every year. Constitutional challenges go up and down, but this concept has been pretty secure since what, 1913?
Again, your argument seems to be that you don't *agree* with progressive income tax, that it strikes you as unfair. And I disagree. But the issue here is whether it is unconsitutional. I think that argument is, both de facto and de jure, wrong.
There does not appear to be anything in that article that specifically adresses the constitutionality of progressive income taxes. I have neither the time nor the expertise to even approach an argument about the broad rubric of "economic liberty." However, it appears that, whatever the result of that overall debate, income taxes, whatever their form, are a power granted to the federal government by the 16th amendment, and unless there is some compelling argument to the contrary, I think your argument is, once again, bogus.
-Jester
Postscript: It is, perhaps, interesting that I read and reply to this CATO institute article (being warned not to flame it) while I have on, in the background, the 4th season of a rather wonderful show by two of their fellows.
Edit: Clarification, correction. Penn and Teller are Fellows at CATO.