Before the 16th amendment was ratified in 1913, government policy was to enumerate expense and debt responsibility equally upon the citizenry, mostly land owners. The mathematical formula divides the total expense by the number of people derived from the census report… Ergo, enumeration.
Look at it this way… If America’s annual operating budget is 1 million dollars, and 1 million people live in America; then the liability equals one buck per person. A family of three would be responsible for three dollars, or their enumerated share of the nations operating expense. Whew! I think we got it!
Today there are 300+ million people living in the US. The Government Accounting Office (GAO), claims our country’s annual operating expense is $3.5 Trillion Dollars. Dividing that amount by 300 million citizens comes to $11,666.00 dollars per person. A family of three would be responsible for $34,998.00 dollars… Their enumerated portion of the operating budget.
There are millions of families who receive an “Earned-Income-Tax Credit,” and pay no taxes at all. What a shocker. So who pays the $34.998 dollar short-fall for the underachievers, plus their unearned income rebates?
Click more… to see a video report about income taxes from Libertarian Students attending Auburn University.
Most people don’t even know the total amount of their tax bill. All they care about is the refund, or the difference they must make up. According to the GAO the average amount of income tax paid by each US taxpayer is about $4,500, before deductions. That’s just $7,000 dollars short of their fair share. Add in a spouse and a couple of children, and their family deficit comes close to $41,998.00 bucks, every year.
According to the GAO the nation is 13 Trillion Dollars in debt. Divide that by 300 million people and collectively we each owe… $43,333.33. For a family of three, that’s one child and two adults the debt is $130,000.00 smack-a-roo’s. Guess I’m buying lunch?