A Constitutional Federal Revenue System by Congressman Jim Bridenstine

“The power to tax involves the power to destroy.” – Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819

My vision for federal government revenue system is simple:

  1. Abolish the IRS
  2. Scrap the existing tax code
  3. Establish a new, simple, fair, pro-growth tax system worthy of the American people

As an essential step in reforming taxes and returning to constitutional government, the Internal Revenue Service should be abolished.  The IRS is a vast bureaucracy, costing $12.5 to $13 billion annually.  It would not be necessary under the FairTax.

The IRS has directly abused and harassed individual American citizens and organizations to advance political and policy agendas. The IRS has been used as a political weapon to suppress First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights and influence elections.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees “The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”  The Sixteenth Amendment, which established the income tax, effectively negated the Fourth Amendment by assigning the power to seize assets in payment of taxes due and implicitly violates the provision against “unreasonable searches” in the extent of information that must be reported. The Sixteenth Amendment should be repealed.

The federal income tax system has been used to distort the free market and drive social policies and agendas. Myriad tax loopholes encourage politically favored behavior with economic rewards. The constitutional “general welfare clause” (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1) requires that federal laws provide for the general welfare of all citizens rather than the specific welfare of particular individuals, groups or classes.  Income tax loopholes violate that concept.

Beyond distorting the economy and favoring specific groups, numerous provisions of the complex U.S. tax code directly discourage economic growth. Taxpayers are required to report complex details of their personal financial life, costing Americans billions of hours in non-productive tax compliance efforts every year.  Onerous “death taxes” often force liquidation of businesses and the sale of family farms, forcing not only the elimination of viable businesses and jobs but also economic inefficiencies in tax avoidance schemes.  Tax penalties in the existing code discourage the repatriation of capital earned in international enterprises.  This diminishes potential capital investment in the United States, dampening economic growth and employment.

I favor implementing the FairTax to replace the current federal tax code. The FairTax would raise similar amounts as current federal taxes while being less intrusive, less coercive, less abusive, and less frustrating than the current system.

The FairTax replaces most existing federal taxes with a simple sales tax on all new goods and services at the retail level.  The FairTax does not distort markets, manipulate behavior, or create economic inefficiencies by favoring or penalizing businesses’ or individuals’ economic decisions.

Taxes will be transparent rather than hidden in the cost of goods. Unlike the current system, prices will not include hidden income and payroll taxes paid for labor at every step of production and will not be masked from the worker by employers “withholding” estimated taxes owed from paychecks.

The FairTax is simple to collect and places the burden of proof on the government rather than the taxpayer.  The collection of the FairTax is administered by the states, 45 of which already have sales tax, so collection is simplified.  Under the FairTax, the regressive nature of consumption taxes is eliminated by “prebates” paid to everyone to cover taxes paid on basic necessities.

Abolishing the IRS, scrapping the existing federal tax code, and establishing a simple, fair, pro-growth tax system such as the FairTax will be a move toward constitutional, limited government and a strong economy.  It will also be a great relief to individual Americans.

REP JIM BRIDENSTINEABOUT CONGRESSMAN JIM BRIDENSTINE (R-OK)

U.S. Congressman Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee environment subcommittee. He has a triple major from Rice University in Economics, Business, and Psychology and an MBA from Cornell.

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