Gary North
LewRockwell.com
July 7, 2011
Let us assume that at some point in the future, Congress will pass and the President will sign three bills. These three laws would strip power from the United States government on a scale inconceivable even to the Tea Party’s hard core members. They would be very short laws.
The United States Government hereby abolishes the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and all subsequent laws relating to that Act.
The deadline for filing all Federal income taxes will shift in the next fiscal year from April 15 to the first Monday of November.
Withholding for all Federal taxes is hereby abolished.
Think of what this would mean. First, the central bank of the United States would become just one more over-leveraged bank – the most over-leveraged bank in the country. It would no longer possess a grant of privilege from the United States government. Members of the Board of Governors would no longer be paid by the U.S. government, nor would any other employees of the Board. The Board would have to abandon its Web address: www.federalreserve.gov. No more “.gov.”
Second, the voters would be reminded in every Congressional election year just how much money the government is costing them. They would no longer have from mid-April to early November to forget.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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If all Federal income taxes were due on the same day, this day would become the most feared and hated day of the year, assuming that it isn’t already. I ask: Why not have this day fall on the day before Federal elections?
Personal income tax forms must be mailed by April 15. Think about this date. Before they vote in November, taxpayers have almost seven months to forget about tax misery day the previous April, and their next form-filing day will not come for almost six months. Out of sight, out of mind.
I say, let every citizen recall his previous day’s tax filing and check-writing experience when he steps into the polling booth to cast his vote. Let democracy speak!
Third, taxpayers would have to adopt a program of personal voluntary thrift in order to set aside the money they owe to the government. Every payday, they would have to take steps to prepare for the Day of Reckoning. No longer would the government get the use of the public’s money interest-free for a year. No longer would the government be able to position itself as a provider of nice refunds: “free money!” No longer would the government force people to reveal their whereabouts in order to get their refunds.
WITHHOLDING TAXES
The withholding tax program makes it easier for governments to collect taxes. The system was invented by Rockefeller agent Beardsley Ruml. When, in 1942, he came up with a plan to sell Congress on the idea of income tax withholding, he understood exactly what this would do for revenues actually collected: multiply them.
Here was the government’s problem in 1942: only about five million out of the 34 million Americans subject to the income tax were saving to pay it on March 15, 1943. This presented a big problem for tax collectors, now that wartime taxes had been hiked dramatically. Ruml, formerly the director of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation, in 1942 was chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. He was also the treasurer of R. H. Macy & Co., the department store. As Macy’s treasurer, he well understood that most people resist saving for known expenditures. He asked: Why not get employers to deduct their employees’ income tax liabilities? He recommended this to Congress in 1942, and Congress in 1943 passed a tax collection bill that included Ruml’s withholding provision: the Current Tax Payment Act.
The Treasury Department went to work defending this program. It used staff economist Milton Friedman to do much of the research.
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