Rays of Sun From "The Baltimore Sun" Shining Over "The Atlantic"

Baiting the Ron Paul trolls on the income tax

Atlantic magazine blogger Megan McArdle (a libertarian, by the way, whose former nom de blog was Jane Galt!) notes that the U.S. federal income tax is, in fact, legal.

I wish . . .

That Ron Paul supporters would stop informing me, in ALL CAPS, that various current policies are UNCONSTITUTIONAL, when in fact those very things were WRITTEN INTO THE CONSTITUTION via the AMENDMENT PROCESS. The FOUNDING FATHERS deliberately gave future legislators the ability to AMEND the constitution, because they wisely assumed that in the FUTURE there might be circumstances they were unable to FORESEE in 1787. Whatever you may think of the income tax, it is not only constitutional, but actually in the constitution, via this very clear 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.The complaints that I don't know what I'm talking about would be more convincing if the people making them gave evidence of having actually read the document that they claim validates their most dearly held beliefs.

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Editor's Note: The Baltimore Sun has been reporting on the Ron Paul Revolution in surprisingly balanced ways. Be sure to read the hundreds of comments both Jay Hancock's (Baltimore Sun) and Megan McArdle's (The Atlantic) article.