@parados,
parados wrote:
A limit on what the government can do is NOT a limit on taxation. It is only a limit on where taxes can be spent.
We all agree that the government does have some limits put on it by the constitution.
Well that's a start. You're miles ahead of Cyclop in at least recognizing that the Constitution at least imposes some limits on what Congress can spend money on. Now, if you had just read with any comprehension what the Founders said about that, and read the pertinent clauses of the Constitution itself that Ican posted, you might have come all the way pretty close to my point of view:
Quote:Article 1
Section 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Focus on that 'uniformity' clause a bit. How do you think that applies to our esteemed President's idea to impose taxes on a few financial guys who got bonuses that he and the Congress authorized but turned out to be embarrassing? Do you see that as an unauthorized, even illegal prerogative of the government to do?
Here is a pretty good condensed explanation of what the Constitution does and does not allow Congress to do re taxes according to the combined opinions of the Founders"I don’t know where I originally got this but it has been in my Constitution file for awhile:
Quote:Constitutional Taxation and Appropriation under the General Welfare Clause
From a constitutional perspective, Congress' power under the General Welfare Clause is governed by 4 rules:
* The general welfare of the United States is simply one of the three purposes of taxation. This Clause does not grant Congress a separate legislative power.
* Congress cannot tax and spend for the general welfare generally. Its power is confined to the States in their united capacity.
* The appropriation of money from taxation must be general (apply to the whole). Congress cannot tax and spend for local or particular projects within an individual State or States.
* Congress cannot tax and spend to do things not authorized by the Constitution. Its power is limited to instances wherein the Constitution empowers Congress to act for the general welfare of the United States.
The majority of all taxation and appropriation under this Clause is unconstitutional because one or more of these rules are not followed. For example. At the present time, Congress imposes a general gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon throughout the United States. When Congress writes a spending bill and a powerful member of Congress wants to buy some votes from the folks back home, he places an earmark in the legislation to have a 3 million dollar hiking trail built in his home State or congressional district. The money for the project is appropriated from the general fund where the gasoline taxes were deposited with other taxes. Thus, taxes from the general fund were used to finance a local or particular project within an individual State. This is unconstitutional. The project was not for the welfare of the States in their united capacity. This is unconstitutional. Since building hiking trails in the States is not within the structure of government established by the Constitution, the appropriation failed this constitutional test also.
In other words, Congress cannot impose a general tax throughout the United States, put the money in the general fund of the United States, appropriate money from the general fund of the United States, and then spend the money for a local or particular project within an individual State or States. This type of spending is blatantly unconstitutional because all appropriations must be general.
If the government limits its activities to those specifically authorized by the Constitution, it needs only so much money to perform those functions. Any additional would pile up in the national treasury where it would quickly become obvious to all tax payers that they were being taxed too much which in itself is a violation of the Constitution which authorizes the government to collect taxes as are necessary to perform its Consitutionally mandated functions.
Of course if we allow the government to perform whatever functions it wants to do and ignore the limitations of the Constitution, we are allowing the government the right to take every last penny and bit of property that we own should it decide to do so.
