Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
~Calvin Coolidge
Despite his best intentions, Cal made a non-controversial statement. The controversy that does exist arises from our mixed perceptions of "necessity."
The first US income tax was passed in 1861 to help pay Civil War expenses. War expenses are a necessity, most would agree, so no controversy there. That tax was repealed, and the income tax wasn't re-established until passage of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution overcame Supreme Court rejection of prior attempts to impose a federal income tax. Again, our elected representatives rested support for a new tax on the requirements of war: "We are ready to vote for an income tax to meet any emergencies which may arise…and to stand by the Government in time of war".
There's always disagreement as to whether a war should be fought in the first place--but once that's decided, there's nothing more necessary than paying for soldier rations and bullets. But even when a war involving tanks, guns and bombs is not actually involved, the language of war, crisis and emergency has always been used to ensure that new taxes are properly viewed as "necessary." Cal's quote starts to look naive as one moves through US history--expanding federal government, and the "necessary" increase in tax revenues, always in response to emergencies, crises and real or metaphorical wars of this or that sort.
The disagreement on whether more tax is "necessary" isn't usually a disagreement as to whether there are problems in the world. There always are. The disagreement is whether the US Federal Government is the best means of shrinking those problems. If it is, then taxes are "necessary." If not, then robbery is the right word.
Happy Tax Day!
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