Thread: The Hollowing Out of American Federalism

The Hollowing Out of American Federalism

Posted on 12 November 2009
by Lawrence A. Hunter Ph.D.

What Is The Federal System Of Government?

Many people mistakenly equate “Federalismâ€

Liberty in the United States is actually not being taken by the federal government. It's being handed over to them by citizens who can't agree on how to get it back once it doesn't work out the way they thought it would.

Look at all the debates still over something as simple and obvious to many of us since the 16th Amendment was ratified and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 passed by the US Congress that established the abominable federal income tax.

We have Americans millions of them who still prefer this system of taxation. Even many of those who are upset with the complexity of the system prefer some incestuous version of it called a Flat Tax instead of throwing the whole damn ugly mess into the trash and replacing it with a clean, simple, voluntary national retail sales tax with a rebate to reimburse for taxes paid up to the family consumption allowance to exempt necessities and essential spending called the FairTax.

We have millions of Americans who want to tax and punish their employers upon whom they depend for jobs, incomes and sustainability and then whine when their employers throw up their hands and say "we're out of here".

We have millions of Americans who want to burden themselves and their employers with the illusion that they're "getting the rich".

We have millions of Americans who would still rather pay mandatory income taxes to the federal government and state governments as well, spend hours on tax returns, spend hundreds of dollars a year and pay taxes from their incomes before they even get it, than throw the whole system out, restore their liberty, go home with all their income and earnings, and then if and when they want to spend on new products and services above the family consumption allowance for their household, pay voluntary FairTaxes on the transactions.

How can you explain that type of thinking? I can't. It's the most amazing phenomenon imaginable.

How can you explain a citizenry that claims on the one hand it believes in liberty but continues to authorize federal and state governments to declare a war on recreational drug use and spend $70 billion a year on enforcement costs with no reduction in the trade, no reduction in drug use, with 800,000 Americans, blacks 7 to 1 even though blacks and whites use drugs at the same rates, incarcerated every year in state and federal prisons for smoking pot, using coke or whatever? All the while, a $250 billion a year flourishing illegal trade is run and operated by foreign drug cartels sucking this money out of our economy while the feds are stuffing our people in prison. How can you explain that type of thinking? I can't. It's as bizarre as people still supporting the federal income tax over the FairTax.

How can you explain a citizenry that still supports Free Trade Treason when over 30 million Americans have been permanently unemployed by it with no hope and zero possibility of a replacement job except with the government or in government subsidized health care funded with national debt? How can you explain people who prefer to put their fellow citizens out of work and their nation in bankruptcy so they can save 10 cents on a pear at the grocery store or $2 on a Rubbermaid garbage can at Walmart and then march in the streets wailing about high taxes and national debts? Do they not know that the high taxes and national debts are the direct consequence of the Free Trade Treason they support which is what is ripping apart the foundation of their own liberty which is the prosperity than allows them to defend it?

It's inexplicable how so many Americans have lost the ability to explain, comprehend and protect their own liberty.

Thank You Airborn, another excellent article.

Judy wrote,

We have millions of Americans who would still rather pay mandatory income taxes to the federal government and state governments as well, spend hours on tax returns, spend hundreds of dollars a year and pay taxes from their incomes before they even get it, than throw the whole system out, restore their liberty, go home with all their income and earnings, and then if and when they want to spend on new products and services above the family consumption allowance for their household, pay voluntary FairTaxes on the transactions.

Count me out. I want my liberty back, the liberties that I was raised to believe I possessed. I learnt long ago that what I was taught was a farce. Only a fool or fortunate person(s) believes that their liberty is intact outside of their deluded mind.

But, it won’t be simply a matter of untying the knot or walking this cat back. It is impossible to simply retrace the steps that brought the American political system to its present perilous situation; it will require courage, steadfastness, truculence, defiance and a will of iron to stand up to Washington and stand down the power of the federal government. It will be an undertaking not in principle different from but even more daunting and difficult than the Civil Rights Movement, namely reviving America and restoring liberty by overcoming oppressive government that is acting illegally and immorally with a pointed gun under the color of law.

Bring it on!

Originally Posted by roundabout

Thank You Airborn, another excellent article.

Judy wrote,

We have millions of Americans who would still rather pay mandatory income taxes to the federal government and state governments as well, spend hours on tax returns, spend hundreds of dollars a year and pay taxes from their incomes before they even get it, than throw the whole system out, restore their liberty, go home with all their income and earnings, and then if and when they want to spend on new products and services above the family consumption allowance for their household, pay voluntary FairTaxes on the transactions.

Count me out. I want my liberty back, the liberties that I was raised to believe I possessed. I learnt long ago that what I was taught was a farce. Only a fool or fortunate person(s) believes that their liberty is intact outside of their deluded mind.

[quote:2374udlx]But, it won’t be simply a matter of untying the knot or walking this cat back. It is impossible to simply retrace the steps that brought the American political system to its present perilous situation; it will require courage, steadfastness, truculence, defiance and a will of iron to stand up to Washington and stand down the power of the federal government. It will be an undertaking not in principle different from but even more daunting and difficult than the Civil Rights Movement, namely reviving America and restoring liberty by overcoming oppressive government that is acting illegally and immorally with a pointed gun under the color of law.

Bring it on![/quote:2374udlx]

Right On, roundabout. More and more people are learning about the FairTax and the liberty it restores. There may be a better system out there somewhere, but in 30 years of studying the issue, the FairTax proposal is the best one I've ever seen. I've tried for 4 years to find a weakness or flaw in it, and so far I can not.

Every American who wants their liberty back, needs to join the effort to pass the FairTax through Congress and repeal the 16th Amendment on the earliest date thereafter and well within the 7 year sunset provision of the FairTax legislation which is HB 25 in the US House of Representatives and SB 296 in the US Senate. Also, only US citizens and legal residents are eligible for the FairTax Monthly Rebate distributed by the Social Security Administration while every consumer regardless of their citizenship or immigration status pays the FairTax on their purchases of new products and services. Every person who wants to stop illegal immigration should be supporting the FairTax because it has addressed fully 100% the present inequity between Americans paying all the tax, while illegal aliens receive the benefits.

www.fairtax.org