I always like when liberals resort to the argument that the Founding Fathers would agree with them if the Constitution were written today because whatever they are advocating is just so sensible.
This argument for the "living Constitution" interpretation comes up in a variety of circumstances from abortion to free speech to religion and so on. And this includes taxation. Would the Founding Fathers approve of the tax system we have today?
Evidently, Thomas Jefferson would not. Via Patriot Post:
"For example. If the system be established on basis of Income, and his just proportion on that scale has been already drawn from every one, to step into the field of Consumption, and tax special articles in that, as broadcloth or homespun, wine or whiskey, a coach or a wagon, is doubly taxing the same article. For that portion of Income with which these articles are purchased, having already paid its tax as Income, to pay another tax on the thing it purchased, is paying twice for the same thing; it is an aggrievance on the citizens who use these articles in exoneration of those who do not, contrary to the most sacred of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens."
I guess Jefferson would not have approved of the VAT or sales tax.
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