Most of us try to be good citizens and pay income taxes, as well. However, when you know the facts about the history of the 16th Amendment to the constitution, you may not be so inclined in the future.
This is a very good article by Joseph Farah, of WorldNetDaily.com:
“Who’s to blame for gas prices?
Who is most to blame for America’s skyrocketing gasoline prices?
The list of suspects and collaborators is long – foreign oil producers, environmentalists, lack of competition among oil companies, instability in the Middle East, etc.
Yet, none of those can begin to compete with the U.S. federal government as the chief contributor to $4-plus-a-gallon gas and $130-a-barrel oil. And the problem is far bigger than you might suspect.
It’s not just at ANWR in the remote parts of Alaska where Washington continues to is prohibit pumping of vast reserves of oil – even in a time of national crisis, when the American people are on the verge of apoplexy over gas prices. In fact, the U.S. government is pretty much blocking exploration and pumping of oil on most so-called public land.
Federal lands throughout the United States are estimated to contain 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Some 60 percent of onshore federal lands that have potential as domestic sources of oil and natural gas are officially closed to leasing by the Bureau of Land Management. That translates to 62 percent domestic oil reserves inaccessible for development.
But it gets worse.
An additional 30 percent of onshore federal oil and 49 percent of onshore federal gas may only be developed subject to restrictions over and above standard environmental lease terms, including seasonal timing limitations.
And, I am afraid, it gets still worse.
Just 8 percent of onshore federal oil and 10 percent of onshore federal gas are accessible under standard lease terms.
That’s quite a service the federal government is providing for the country, isn’t it? But if you don’t like the fact that Washington is blocking development of oil and gasoline on lands owned by you, consider this.
Not only is the federal government’s energy policy bent toward subverting the development of energy, Washington also demands – and gets – a huge cut on the sale of every gallon of gasoline sold, far more, in fact, than the oil companies themselves profit from each gallon.
It’s true.
While few Americans realize they own the land where drilling could bring gas prices down dramatically, they also have little clue that up to 75 cents of the cost per gallon is the result of local, state and federal taxes– and that number is rising. That’s because government profits to the tune of 20 percent of the cost paid at the pump.
Do you think government has an incentive to lower the cost of a gallon of gas when it rakes in 20 percent of the price? I don’t think so. Government is, in fact, making windfall profits from rising gas prices. By definition, the oil companies do not make windfall profits. As any economics101 student knows, windfall profits are those made without effort or investment. The only party making windfall profits from gas and oil by that definition is government. Government has every possible incentive to keep gas prices high and going higher.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, when the average price of regular unleaded gas peaked at $3 per gallon in 2006, most major companies were profiting only about 10 cents per gallon on refining and marketing options, while the federal government alone profited by as much as 18.4 cents per gallon.
And what did the government do to earn that money? It blocked exploration and development of oil. What a racket! How do I invest in those futures?
Well, you can’t exactly invest in the government. It’s more like allowing yourself to be extorted at the point of a gun.”
Wow. The federal governemnt gets up to 20% of all revenue generated by the sale of gasoline in this country, through taxation. Presumably, they make more than the oil companies themselves!
One must wonder, then, when you consider the fact that oil companies have been posting record profits each quarter, which are in the billions, then what, exactly, is happening to the hundreds of billions of dollars at least that is going to Uncle Sam every 4 months? Anyone? Where is it?
Seems to me that the economic stability of our nation is under great duress at this point, yet I turn on the talking heads (see previous blog) and it’s spun that things are just hunky-dorey, with a little “hiccup” in the economy, nothing to be worried about just keep using gas and paying taxes, thanks very much. Not a word of the plummeting housing industry, which in turn affects several other closely-related industries.
Has anyone tried to get a job lately, in anything other than financial, security or government work? Seems everyone I know is talking of layoffs and small to medium businesses going under.
Why are we not talking about how the U.S. dollar is doing? Why aren’t we talking about how, once the most trusted and used reserve currency in the world is now being shunned at every turn by foreign investors?
Now let me get this straight, you might say…The goverment has a debt now that equals the sum total of debt under all previous adminstrations, Congress talks about money to do this and that all the time when they are interviewed, yet trillions of dollars of tax revenue alone from gas and oil taxation are supposedly…where, exactly?
That’s only one source of revenue for this massively bloated beast we’ve inherited. Let’s look at another interesting article.
16th AMENDMENT WAS DECLARED “IN EFFECT” NOT RATIFIED
The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was never ratified by a majority of the sovereign States.
This is the Amendment that allegedly entitled the Federal Agent (government) in the federal territory of Washington, D.C. and their private collection company, the IRS, to collect “income tax” was falsely declared to be ratified in February 1913 by Secretary of State Philander Knox.
After an exhaustive year long search of legislative records in 48 sovereign states (Alaska & Hawaii were not admitted into the Union until after 1913), Bill Benson wrote his fact findings in The Law That Never Was, Vols. 1 & 2. He was able to unequivocally prove that the 16th Amendment was never Constitutionally, properly, or legally ratified. The only record of the 16th Amendment having been confirmed was a proclamation made by the Secretary of State Philander Knox on February 25, 1913, wherein he simply declared it to be “in effect“, but never stating it was lawfully ratified.
Even if the 16th Amendment were properly ratified, according to Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, it has always been unconstitutional for the U.S. Federal Government to directly tax We the People in their property, wages, salaries, or earnings. The judges of the U.S. Supreme Court rejected any claims that the 16th Amendment changed the constitutional limits on direct taxes in Brushaber v. Union Pacific R.R. Co., 240 U.S. 1, when they ruled that it “created no new power of taxation” and that it “did not change the constitutional limitations which forbid any direct taxation of individuals”.
If you follow the link, you will see the table of records of how each state voted on this Amendment, and it never received full and propler acceptance from the majority of states needed to legally ratify this amendment.
Also, look at the wording of this Amendment.
16th Amendment:
Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratifi ed February 3, 1913. (Note: Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution was modifi ed by the 16th 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.“
….
Interesting to see why so many of the states balked at this amendment. Look at how it is worded. Congress shall have the power to collect taxes on income from any source. That, in and of itself, is far too broad and sweeping a power to give any federal entity. It goes against everything the framers stood for and wrote about. Not only that, but it says that this power shall be “without regard to any census or enumeration”.
Wow. So many people will read that and not see anything wrong with it. So this power of Congress to tax any source of income is beyond the majority will of the people (census, root word of consensus) and is beyond the ability to enumerate, or break down this power and discuss it line by line. How open and honest is that? Are you kidding me?
Can anyone even imagine how much total revenue has been generated from the government receiving up to 30% of our earnings from any source it chooses for HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of people over the last 95 years?
This is truly the biggest theft over the longest time for the largest amount ever, that I know of. The federal governmet would have you believe this money is going to fight white Al-Qaeda in our country. OK. And that’s why our southern borders are wide open and there are a record number of kindappings in border towns all over the southwest, yet some TSA agent at the airport who can barely spell “constitution” is telling me that my toothpaste tube presents such a great danger to the safety of the crew and my fellow passengers that I must put it in a Ziploc bag and seal it in order to remove said danger. When did we move into the Twilight Zone?
Where is all the money? Can we really assume there’s no entity that has influence over Washington, D.C.? Can we really dismiss, in the face of increasingly conclusive evidence, the fact that our own government does not, indeed, belong to us and hasn’t for quite some time?
The federal government is not our mommy. Its not our Big Brother, looking out for our welfare. It was designed to be a very limited republic, with limited powers. It’s not for welfare or medicaid. Its not to teach our children how to be mindless mushballs that are stupid, obese, and in a state of pharmaceutically-induced compliance. It’s not for telling us we can’t speak out about what’s going on in this country unless a cop tells us we can in a designated “free speech zone”.
Unfortunately, the only thing needed for this abomination to continue is the ever-reliable intellectual slumber of We The People. There was a reason those are the first three words of the most profound document in our history.
Men and women of honor cannot sit idly by while the biggest atrocities in the history of mankind take shape around us. We must be compelled by God Himself to act in defense of those upon whom the wolves wish to prey. If not for the simple fact that this hunting ground includes our own families and friends.
So my question is this: When are we going to decide to act? When do we shake off this almost surreal stupor we are in and wake up to what’s really happening?
True courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s doing the right thing in spite of it.
WAKE UP.
