Yes, Snow96, the Sixteenth Amendment is crystal clear and it states:
”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 Sixteenth Amendment does not declare:
”The Congress shall have power to lay and collect direct taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
And, the Sixteenth Amendment does not say:
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on earned wages, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
Now, with the above stated FACTS in mind, a number of obvious and legitimate questions present themselves which, to the best of my knowledge, have not been adequately addressed by our Supreme Court, and since our very own Supreme Court has stated “The whole aim of construction, as applied to a provision of the Constitution, is to discover the meaning, to ascertain and give effect to the intent of its framers and the people who adopted it.”. HOME BLDG. & LOAN ASSOCIATION v. BLAISDELL, 290 U.S. 398 (1934), should the following questions not be resolved?
What was the meaning of “income”, within the amendment, as understood by those in Congress who framed and debated the proposed amendment?
Was the meaning of income to include a working person’s earned wage, or was there a specific identifiable group and their unique type of earners the intended targeted of the amendment, who are distinguishable from a laboring class person and their earned wage?
Does a federal tax on a working person’s earned wage, as distinguished from a tax on incomes realized under a government created corporate charter, take the form of a “direct tax”, and as such, requires the protection of Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4 to be applied, since it has not been repealed, while a tax on “incomes” realized under a corporate charter would be indirect and taxable under the Sixteenth amendment?
Since Congress may lay and collect taxes “incomes” without apportionment, and there is no repeal of Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4, is it not the Courts’ duty to harmonize Congressional legislation in such a manner that effect is given to each provision of our Constitution?
JWK
