Blackmoor Vituperative

The Spanish-American War ended 107 years ago. So why are you still paying the 3% excise tax to help fund it?

In 1898, President McKinley imposed the Federal Excise Tax law, or “tax on talk”. The Federal government “needed” money to fight the Spanish-American War, and there was no Federal Income Tax at that time. The “tax on talk” was supposed to be a temporary “luxury tax” on the very wealthy (who were the only ones who had telephones at that time).

The Federal Income Tax has a similar history: originally created to fund the Federal government’s war effort against states which sought to secede from the Union, the tax never went away. Rather, it increased with every new war over the next 90 years, and gradually expanded from affecting less than 1% of Americans to nearly all of them.

The excise tax probably will never go away, although there are some grassroots movements under way to eliminate it. However, there is some hope that the income tax will be, if not eliminated, at least overhauled to be less oppressive. This hope is the Fair Tax.

Simply put, the FairTax replaces the way we’re currently taxed – based on our annual income – with a tax on goods and services. The FairTax is a voluntary “consumption” tax: the more you buy, the more you pay in taxes, the less you buy, the less you pay in taxes.

Everyone pays their fair share of taxes, and with the FairTax rebate, spending up to the poverty level is tax free. The Federal government is fully funded, including Social Security and Medicare, and you don’t need an expert to determine your Federal taxes.

(from Americans For Fair Taxation)

It’s time to write some letters, folks. Get on it.