100 years ago the United States enacted the Income Tax.
It was 1913 and the Progressive Era swung the pendulum away from laissez-faire into a State Corporatism model. A Nanny State. The protector of big business, big capital. Government of the special interests, by the bureaucrats and for the lobbyists. The income tax claimed total eminent domain over every dollar earned by the American people. The progressive income tax has been one of the most destructive and burdensome taxes in history.
100 Years ago the United States enacted the 17th Amendment.
The Progressive Era’s obsession with direct democracy and blind faith in the power of the electorate resulted in a major blow to the concept of federalism in the United States. The Progressive Era brought the 17th Amendment. It meant that Senators were no longer to be elected by the State legislators, they were to be voted on directly by the population. The intent was sold to the public as a way to prevent local state governments from being corrupted by corporate interests. But it proved to have a different effect. It limited the interest of the Senators in serving the needs of their home states. It explains why so many are more concerned with the business of Washington and foreign powers than they are with their own state.
100 Years ago the Progressive Era brought us the Federal Reserve.
The Central Bank. It had twice been tried but this time was able to take hold. The Jeffersonian view of the central bank was clear. The United States government did not need a central bank to conduct its business affairs. Private banks with competitive incentives on interest rates, savings and loans would provide the maximum prosperity to the newly founded American republic. The Federal Reserve has been another millstone around the neck of laissez-faire capitalism. It is the funder of big government through monetary debasement. It is more secretive than the CIA, DIA or the NSA. It is #5 on the Communist Manifesto: The Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Tonight before the show Hartmann asked if I called myself a Republican. I told him I don’t self identify with that title, no. I said I was a “small R” republican. He understood what I was implying and then went on saying, “Oh yes, the republicans. I consider myself a bit of a federalist, ‘small f’. You are an anti-federalist?” I replied vigorously “Yes!” He laughed and smiled and said… “Ahh yes, you guys went on to become the Confederacy.” I snapped: “We went on to become the Bill of Rights.”
He smiled and said… “Oh yeah. That’s true”
100 Years after the height of the Progressive Era, is it time to restore the American republic?
The interview is below.