Kerby Anderson

Many years ago, Walter Williams wrote a column with the controversial title “Gullible Americans.” I thought about it now that Democrats seem ready to nominate a candidate who is planning to raise taxes. 

In his column, he reminded us that during the legislative debate about the 16th amendment, President William Taft and congressional supporters argued that only the rich would ever have to pay federal income taxes. When the amendment was enacted in 1913, only one-half of one percent did pay taxes. Walter Williams argued that Americans ratified the amendment because they were duped into believing only the rich would pay income taxes.

It is worth noting that the founders made it impossible to have such a tax. That being said, Abraham Lincoln did impose an income tax on Americans to finance the war. It was later repealed. During the Grover Cleveland administration, Congress enacted the Income Tax Act of 1894. The next year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. That is why the 16th amendment had to be passed in order to have an income tax.

Walter Williams also cited Medicare as another example of gullible Americans. When it was enacted in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee, along with President Lyndon Johnson, estimated that Medicare would cost an inflation-adjusted $12 billion by 1990. They were off by almost an order of magnitude. In 1990, Medicare topped $107 billion. Today Medicare costs more than $600 billion.

We as Americans have been gullible when believing that a new tax won’t affect us. We have been gullible in thinking that a new government program will stay within the estimated budget. The question is whether we will be gullible again in this election year.