Repeal the Income Tax! Part 4

Published February 07, 2013 in News by Sharon Harris

Arguing for REPEAL on the 100th Anniversary of the Income Tax
 
February 3, 2013 marked a black day in U.S. history. It was the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which enabled the creation of the U.S. federal income tax.
 
One hundred years later, more and more Americans are asking: Can the income tax be repealed -- and replaced with… nothing?

The answer is: yes! Ron Paul interjected it into the national debate during his presidential campaign. Now it's up to us to take up the mantle.

In recognition of this unpleasant anniversary, we're reposting a 4-part series by Advocates President Sharon Harris on how to argue effectively for ending the income tax.

 

Making the Case for Ending the Income Tax: Part Four


This is Part Four of my series on persuading Americans that abolishing the personal income tax is sensible, desirable, and realistic.
 
In the past three posts I've given seven ways to begin that argument. If you haven't read them, you can find them here,  here, and here.

Now let's continue.
 
NINE: Know your audience so you can show them specifically how ending the income tax will make a big difference on the issues most important to them. 
 
Are they concerned about poverty and joblessness? Ending the income tax will put hundreds of billions of dollars every year back into the hands of those who earn it. It will dramatically stimulate economic growth. It will unleash, as Harry Browne said, "the biggest boost in prosperity that America has ever seen. There will be a job for everyone who can work and charity for everyone who can't."
 
Are your listeners concerned about education and strong families? Without the burden of an income tax, private education will flourish. Parents will be able to afford the education they think best for their children. Families where both parents are now forced to work fulltime will be able to afford, if they wish, to let one parent stay home and devote their time to their children. Nothing will do more to strengthen family values than ending the income tax.
 
Are they concerned about intrusive Big Government? Ending the income tax will limit government power and force government to act with far more restraint and responsibility.
 
TEN: Point out to your liberty-minded friends that ending the income tax will win numerous victories for limited-government advocates -- at once. Currently freedom activists must address so many issues. But the abolition of the personal income tax would win many of these victories in a single stroke!
 
This is a powerful argument that supporters of the Liberty Amendment have made for years. (The Liberty Amendment, as discussed in earlier articles, is Ron Paul's bill to abolish the income tax.) For examples of how the Liberty Amendment would dramatically shrink government in many ways at once, see this article: "The Liberty Amendment will win the battle on 45 issues all at once."
 
ELEVEN: Some will say that such dramatic reform is impossible, that it is simply too big a change to hope for. Some of my earlier articles addressed this. Another thing you can do is to point out specific, concrete examples of enormous political change that happened quickly.
 
Examples: It became illegal to sell liquor in 1920 -- a gigantic change in American life. Further, that seemingly permanent law was repealed just as dramatically in 1932, after the failures of Prohibition became obvious. Women secured the right to vote in America in 1920 -- after nearly a century and a half of being denied this. The Berlin Wall, once seemingly as permanent as the Great Pyramids, fell suddenly in a matter of days in 1989. Government-imposed segregation in the South was halted after being the norm for a century.
 
Have examples like this at your fingertips. They can help your listener see, understand -- and most importantly, feel -- that bold libertarian change like abolishing the income tax is indeed possible.