Little Known Fact of the Day: Taxes

United States Constitution
Article 1
Section. 7.
Clause 1: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives;

Talk about antiquated procedures!

In all the political discussions about taxes in the past few years, most of them based around what the President decides to push for, does anyone mention that it’s not his responsibility? His committees shouldn’t be the one to judge, his national campaign shouldn’t be about the tax system. It’s the House. Which goes to show how far we’ve gone from the legislature based system of government our founders wanted, and instead to
one based on the charisma of the executive.

I’d love for Chief Justice Scalia to strike down some tax bill because his originalism says the President should not have had such a heavy hand in that matter.

But we’re not just denying the letter of the law, but even more so the spirit.

Why did the founders impose this restriction? Determining how much money to take from the people should not rest with an aristocratic and disproportionate body, or a “big picture”-focused executive (like George III), but with the legislature most closely connected to the people. If anyone is going to take their money, then it should be the elected officials who would pay the greatest price.

The founders did understand the virtues of democratic accountability. Even if they didn’t trust the average commoner to say much of use about the Ambassador to Switzerland, they had every right to vote directly and equally on the guy who raised (or lowered) their taxes.