"Congress has the power to tax".
that's the message.
But congress has the power to tax BASED on what? What is CALLED a federal "income tax" is, in fact, not taxation of income, it is taxation of an entire personal or business "budget", it has FAR more lines of tax law pertaining to the EXPENDATURES of that income, than to the actual INCOME received. As soon as you base "income taxation" on what that income was spent on, rather than simply the income itself, then you have veered far afield from "income taxation", and are now into social engineering (never mentioned in the 16th amendment), rather than simply raising revenue, the stated constitutional purpose of the 16th amendment. The SCOTUS, IMHO, must step back and look at the actual INTENT of the constitution and its many amendments. Allowing taxation of "income" to be based ONLY on how that income was LATER spent should be struck down, as not complying with "equal protection" under the law (the 14th amendment). Once two citizens, working side by side for the same wages, at the same job, for the same employer, get different "income" taxation rates, that ALONE should have triggered SCOTUS constitutional objections.
The 16th amendment: "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."
Note that NO mention of "exceptions for how that income was spent" were ever mentioned, yet 95% of our tax code now adresses that alone.
The 14th amendment (section 1): "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Equal protection SHOULD apply to INCOME alone not how (or upon whom) that income was spent AFTER it was eaned. Income taxation applies only to income FROM all sources, as NO mention of how it was later spent is included in the 16th amendment.
