This week, we celebrate Tax Day.  While most Americans accept April 15 as a consequence of citizenship, I view it as a national holiday that symbolizes how far we have strayed from Constitutional government.  The whole tax code is a complicated web of waste and corruption.  If they were alive today, some of our most revered leaders would share my view.

     The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own  

     money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public

     moneys. -- Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) recently released their annual publication “Pig Book” which chronicles fiscal year 2008’s congressional earmarks. According to CAGW, Congress passed, as part of 12 appropriations bills, 11,610 projects worthy of the title “pork barrel spending.”  The number of projects represents a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects from the year before.  The 11,610 projects were worth $17.2 billion which represented a 30 percent increase over the fiscal year 2007 total of $13.2 billion.  Egregious offenders of federal pork include:  Montana Senators Max Baucaus (D) and Jon Tester (D) for $148,950 for the Montana Sheep Institute, Representative Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) for $1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (R), and Rep. Thomas Allen (D-Maine) for $188,000 for the Lobster Institute, and Representative Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) for $211,509 in olive fruit fly research in Paris, France.  And you thought sheep, lobsters, and olive fruit flies were not in our national interest.  One thing is certain, none of these expenditures meet constitutional muster.  Thanks to CAGW for allowing us to see how our elected officials are good stewards of our tax dollars.

     I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which   

     granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the     

     money of their constituents.... -- James Madison, 1794

How many times have we heard from congresspersons that we must all pay our “fair share” of taxes to provide for the “common good”?  What is a fair share?  Those words are not in the Constitution.  Something else that is not in the document is the authorization to spend money on welfare programs, government run insurance schemes, and aid to other countries.  James Madison knew this and he was the “Father of the Constitution”.  In fiscal year 2008, our tax dollars will be spent in the following quantities:  $36 billion in foreign aid to developing countries, $33.6 billion for the Housing and Urban Development Department, and $58 billion for the Health and Human Services Department.  All of this spending is done with good intentions to help people, but none of it is constitutional.

     Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery. -- Calvin Coolidge

A few years back, I made a similar comment to a good friend about taxes and legalized theft.  He looked at me incredulously and then laughed hysterically.  Just because something is legal does not make it right.  We can point to slavery and Jim Crow Laws for proof.  According to the Constitution, all of Congress’s powers are in Article 1, Section 8.  These powers can be placed in seven categories:  coining money, immigration law, post offices, patents and copyrights, courts, the military (including sole right to declare war), and Washington, D.C.  Congressional authorization to spend money on farm subsidies, education, national parks, and corporate welfare is not mentioned.

How many of us have heard that the Constitution is an archaic piece of paper that no one should pay attention to any longer?  It is just this kind of thinking that has given us unreasonable searches and wiretaps through the so called “Patriot Act”.  No, the Constitution is not an old fashioned, outdated document.  It guarantees our rights as citizens and limits the power of the government.  So, if you are one who believes that April 15 is a consequence of citizenship, reconsider.  April 15 should be a reminder of the bountiful times Congress violates the very document they swear to uphold.  Happy Tax Day everyone!  

Resources:

Famous-Quote.net – http://www.famous-quote.net

Citizens Against Government Waste - http://www.cagw.org

Kenn Jacobine teaches History and English for the American International School of Lusaka, Zambia.  Send him email at lovesliberty@gmail.com.