The Power To Destroy
American Documents: The Sixteenth Amendment
2026 is America’s 250th birthyear. To celebrate, I’m highlighting 50+ significant American documents from our history. So far I have covered The Mayflower Compact, Patrick Henry’s Speech, The Lee Resolution, The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Treaty of Paris, the Virginia Plan, The Northwest Ordinance, The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Louisiana Purchase, the Star-Spangled Banner, the Monroe Doctrine, the Indian Removal Act, the Knickerbocker Baseball Club rules, Lincoln’s ‘House Divided’ Speech, the Emancipation Proclamation, Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address, the Appomattox Surrender Letters, the Homestead Act, the Gettysburg Address, the Alaska Purchase, the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, Susan B. Anthony’s Speech on Women’s Suffrage, the Nez Perce Surrender, the Dawes Act, and the Newlands Resolution.
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“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
—The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
On Monday I introduced you to the biggest bastard to occupy the White House in the 20th Century, Woodrow Wilson. I placed the blame for his election squarely at the feet of Teddy Roosevelt. I was correct to do so.
Now we’re going to look at the next big piece of steaming excrement to come out of the Progressive Era of the early 1900s: the Sixteenth Amendment. You know: the one that gave the government the power to steal your money whenever you make it.
No, I’m not being hyperbolic. Drafted in 1909 (post-Teddy, early Taft) and ratified in 1913 (early Wilson), it gave Congress the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes “from whatever source derived.” Sounds like a great idea, in the same way that slowly inserting a tumor into your ear canal with salad tongs is a great idea.
America had flirted with income taxes before. We had one during the Civil War to pay the bills, and another in 1894 that the Supreme Court smacked down as an unconstitutional direct tax. By the early 1900s, the Progressives were in full swing. They didn’t like relying on tariffs for revenue — they saw tariffs as protecting big business and hurting “the little guy.” They wanted a direct tax on incomes so the government could fund “reforms,” infrastructure, and whatever else Washington decided the country needed.
The amendment was proposed in Congress in 1909 during a tariff fight. Key sponsors included Sen. Nelson Aldrich (a conservative who helped shape it as a political play) and progressives like Rep. Cordell Hull. It passed the House and Senate overwhelmingly and went out to the states.
Amendments are supposed to be slow and difficult. Tariffs must have been nationally unpopular then, because this one went fast—just over three and a half years, all during the Taft administration. Amendments need 3/4s of the States to pass, which meant 36 of 48 at the time. The 36th state ratified it on February 3, 1913. Woodrow Wilson was president by then, and the Revenue Act of 1913 put it into practice: a 1% tax on incomes over about $3,000–$4,000 (a decent middle-class salary back then), with surtaxes up to 6% on the very rich. Only a tiny percentage of Americans paid it at first. It was sold as temporary and targeted. This was bullshit.
If you lived through the quickly-quashed Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011-2012, you know the lingo. “Oh, we’re just asking the rich to pay their fair share so the rest of us get a break!” This was born of either naivete or dishonesty because you literally gave a bunch of power-mad sociopaths the power to incrementally deprive you of more and more of your income, a consequence from which they would exempt themselves as the burden grew and grew.
To the shock of no one who actually works for a living, once the feds had the power, the rates climbed (especially during wars), deductions and loopholes multiplied, and the IRS became a permanent fixture. It was never about fairness, it was just sold that way before mutating into a rancid ulcer in the stomach of the productive man.
Somehow we abolished Prohibition but this Constitutional sphincter wart is still in place. The Founders set up a limited federal government funded mostly by tariffs and excise taxes. They explicitly outlined the power to tax as “the power to destroy” and thus income was untouched. The 16th Amendment opened up your bank account whenever the Fed wanted to, like a pervy uncle who keeps looking at you during that once-a-year family dinner on April 15.
“Pay their fair share” bro, STFU, the rich pay plenty of taxes but their income isn’t structured the same as ours and they don’t pay our rates. Anyone still defending this model is the most useful of idiots to a cancer on our wealth and our individual resources.
Abolish the Sixteenth Amendment. I don’t blame Woodrow Wilson for this one directly, he was just the worst manifestation of the mindset of his time, that this was the age of “progress.” Progressivism has always been retarded. Now you’re overtaxed by criminals. Good job, American From 113 Years Ago. You guys suck.
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