T. Coleman Andrews was an IRS Commissioner for 3 years. He had the
following things to say about income taxes after resigning.
"Congress went beyond merely enacting an income tax law and
repealed Article IV of the Bill of Rights, by empowering the tax
collector to do the very things from which that article says we were to
be secure. It opened up our homes, our papers and our effects to the
prying eyes of government agents and set the stage for searches of our
books and vaults and for inquiries into our private affairs whenever the
tax men might decide, even though there might not be any justification
beyond mere cynical suspicion."
"The income tax is bad because it has robbed you and me of the
guarantee of privacy and the respect for our property that were given to
us in Article IV of the Bill of Rights. This invasion is absolute and
complete as far as the amount of tax that can be assessed is concerned.
Please remember that under the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress can take
100% of our income anytime it wants to. As a matter of fact, right now
it is imposing a tax as high as 91%. This is downright confiscation and
cannot be defended on any other grounds."
"The income tax is bad because it was conceived in class hatred, is
an instrument of vengeance and plays right into the hands of the
communists. It employs the vicious communist principle of taking from
each according to his accumulation of the fruits of his labor and giving
to others according to their needs, regardless of whether those needs
are the result of indolence or lack of pride, self-respect, personal
dignity or other attributes of men."
"The income tax is fulfilling the Marxist prophecy that the surest
way to destroy a capitalist society is by steeply graduated taxes
on income and heavy levies upon the estates of people when they
die."
"As matters now stand, if our children make the most of their
capabilities and training, they will have to give most of it to the tax
collector and so become slaves of the government. People cannot pull
themselves up by the bootstraps anymore because the tax collector gets
the boots and the straps as well."
"The income tax is bad because it is oppressive to all and
discriminates particularly against those people who prove themselves
most adept at keeping the wheels of business turning and creating
maximum employment and a high standard of living for their fellow
men."
"I believe that a better way to raise revenue not only can be found
but must be found because I am convinced that the present system is
leading us right back to the very tyranny from which those, who
established this land of freedom, risked their lives, their fortunes and
their sacred honor to forever free themselves..."
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