%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"... the key question is: can we define 'income' in a fair and reasonably straightforward manner? Unfortunately we have not yet succeeded in doing so."//%Author%Shirley Peterson//%Who%former IRS Commissioner//%Source%April 1993 //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive, [it] reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American... it has earned a rebellion and it's time we rebelled."//%Author%Ronald Reagan//%Source%May 1983, Williamsburg, VA //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"If no information or return is filed, [the] Internal Revenue Service cannot assess you."//%Author%Gary Makovski//%Who%Special IRS Agent//%Source%testifying under oath in US. v. Lloyd //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Our tax system is based upon voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint."//%Author%United States Supreme Court//%Source%in Flora v. United States //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Our tax system is based on individual self-assessment and voluntary compliance."//%Author%Mortimer Caplin//%Source%Internal Revenue Audit Manual (1975) //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"The purpose of the IRS is to collect the proper amount of tax revenues at the least cost to the public, and in a manner that warrants the highest degree of public confidence in our integrity, efficiency and fairness. To achieve that purpose, we will encourage and achieve the highest possible degree of voluntary compliance in accordance with the tax laws and regulations..."//%Author%Internal Revenue Manual//%Source%Chapter 1100, section 1111.1 //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"I have sat on many a promotion panel where the first question of panel members was 'How many seizures have you made?"'.//%Author%Joseph R. Smith//%Who%eighteen-year IRS agent//%Source%testifying before Congress //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Eight decades of amendments... to [the] code have produced a virtually impenetrable maze... The rules are unintelligible to most citizens... The rules are equally mysterious to many government employees who are charged with administering and enforcing the law."//%Author%Shirley Peterson//%Who%Former IRS Commissioner//%Source%April14, 1993 at Southern Methodist University //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Some techniques can be used only in connection with a full-scale program due to the nature of the tax situation and the need to avoid unnecessary taxpayer reaction. An example would be income tax returns compliance efforts aimed at the non-business taxpayer."//%Author%Internal Revenue Service Manual//%Source%section 5221 "Returns Compliance Programs" //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"This [audit] was made extremely difficult because [IRS] existing Systems were not designed to provide reliable financial information... on their operations."//%Author%Charles A. Bowsher//%Who%Comptroller, Government Accounting Office//%Source%on the first-ever audit of the IRS in 1993. //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"The wages of the average American worker, after inflation and taxes, have decreased 17% since 1973, the only Western industrial nation to so suffer."//%Author%Martin Gross//%Who%author//%Source%"The Tax Racket: Government Extortion From A to Z" //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"When you pay social security taxes, you are in no way making provision for your own retirement. You are paying the pensions of those who are already retired. Once you understand this, you see that whether you will get the benefits you are counting on when you retire depends on whether Congress will levy enough taxes, borrow enough, or print enough money..."//%Author%W. Allen Wallis//%Who%former Chairman of the 1975 Advisory Council on Social Security//%Source%May 27, 1976 //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"There is no prospect that today's younger workers will receive all the Social Security and Medicare benefits currently promised them."//%Author%Dorcas Hardy//%Who%former Social Security Commissioner and author of "Social Insecurity"//%Source%quoted in the December 1995 Reader's Digest. //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"All we have to do now is to inform the public that the payment of social security taxes is voluntary and watch the mass exodus."//%Author%Walter E. Williams//%Who%John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA//%Source%January 24, 1996. //%end%

%start%%cat=Constitution,Economics,Fed,Law,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"The Constitution is a written instrument. As such it's meaning does not alter. That which it meant when adopted, it means now."//%Author%United States Supreme Court//%Source%South Carolina vs. United States (1905) //%end%

%start%%cat=Constitution,Economics,Fed,Law,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"The Constitution prohibits any direct tax, unless in proportion to numbers as ascertained by the census..... [and] ... prohibits Congress from laying a direct tax on the revenue from property of the citizen without regard to state lines..."//%Author% United States Supreme Court//%Source%Pollack v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Company (1895) //%end%

%start%%cat=Constitution,Economics,Fed,Law,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"... [the 16th Amendment] conferred no new power of taxation... [and]... prohibited the ... power of income taxation possessed by Congress from the beginning from being taken out of the category of indirect taxation to which it inherently belonged..."//%Author%United States Supreme Court//%Source%Stanton v. Baltic Mining (1916)/%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Government,Law,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"To lay with one hand the power of government on the property of the citizen, and with the other to bestow it on favored individuals... is none the less robbery because it is... called taxation."/%Author%United States Supreme Court//%Source%Loan Association v. Topeka (18__ ) //%end%

%start%%cat=Congress,Economics,Fed,Law,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"...the intent of the lawmaker is to be found in the language that he has used."//%Author%United States Supreme Court//%Source%U.S. V. Goldberg (1897) //%end%

%start%%cat=Constitution,Deception,Economics,Fed,Law,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Because of what appears to be a lawful command on the surface, many Citizens, because of their respect for what appears to be law, are cunningly coerced into waiving their rights due to ignorance."//%Author%United States Supreme Court//%Source%US. v. Minker, 350 US 179 at 187 //%end%

%start%%cat=Constitution,Economics,Fed,Law,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"No State shall... coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts..."//%Author%United States Constitution//%Source%Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1 //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Law,Money,IRS,Privacy,Taxation//%quote%"... bank records are not the depositor's private papers and having given the information to the bank, the depositor has no legitimate expectation of continued privacy... Records of an individual's accounts with banks are not the individual's private papers protected against compulsory production by the 4th Amendment, but instead are the business records of the banks."//%Author%United States Supreme Court//%Source%US. v. Miller //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Socialism,Taxation//%quote%"In 1833, a small group of Socialists met in London, announcing their intentions of converting the British economic system from capitalism to socialism. This group chose the name 'Fabian Society.' One of the leading members of the Fabian Society, author George Bernard Shaw, perhaps summed it up best when he said, quote: '... Socialism means equality of income or nothing... under socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly feed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well.' "//%Author%Edgar Wallace Robinson//%Source%in his 1980 booklet titled "Rolling Thunder" //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Of all contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money."//%Author% Daniel Webster //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Gold,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Gold is still the ultimate store of wealth. It's the world's only true money. And there isn't much of it to go around. All of it ever mined would fit into a small building - a 56 foot cube. The annual world production would fit into a 14 foot cube, roughly the size of an ordinary living room. If each Chinese citizen were to buy just one ounce, it would take up the annual supply for the next 200 years."//%Author% Mark Nestmann//%Who%author//%Source%"How To Achieve Personal And Financial Privacy In A Public Age //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Government,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"... the privilege of creating and issuing money... is the government's greatest creative opportunity... [saving] the taxpayers immense sums of money..."//%Author%Abraham Lincoln //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Rothschild,Taxation//%quote%"Under the surface, the Rothschilds long had a powerful influence in dictating American financial laws. The law records show that they were powers in the old Bank of the United States [abolished by Andrew Jackson]."//%Author%Gustav Myers//%Who%author//%Source%"History of the Great American Fortunes" //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"... You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, will rout you out."//%Author%Andrew Jackson//%Source%upon evicting a delegation of international bankers from the Oval Office //%end%

%start%%cat=Congress,Constitution,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations."//%Author% Andrew Jackson //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"... we conclude that the [Federal] Reserve Banks are not federal ... but are independent privately owned and locally controlled corporations... without day to day direction from the federal government."//%Author% 9th Circuit Court//%Source%Lewis vs United States, June 24, 1982 //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are US government institutions. They are not... they are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the US for the benefit of themselves and their foreign and domestic swindlers, and rich and predatory money lenders. The sack of the United States by the Fed is the greatest crime in history. Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal its powers, but the truth is the Fed has usurped the government. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will."//%Author%Louis McFadden//%Who%Chairman, House Banking and Currency Committee//%Source%June 10, 1932 //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover that check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money."//%Author%Boston Federal Reserve Bank//%Source%in a publication titled "Putting It Simply" //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"We make money the old fashioned way. We print it."//%Author%Art Rolnick//%Who%former Chief Economist, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Historically, the United States has been a hard money country. Only [since 1913] has the United States operated on a fiat money system. During this period, paper money has depreciated over 87%. During the preceding 140 year period, the hard currency of the United States had actually maintained its value. wholesale prices in 1913... were the same as in 1787."//%Author%Kenneth Gerbino//%Who%former chairman of the American Economic Council //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"About all a Federal Reserve note can legally do is wipe out one debt and replace it with itself another debt, a note that promises nothing. If anything's been paid, the payment occurs only in the minds of the parties..."//%Author% Tupper Saucy//%Who%author//%Source%" The Miracle On Main Street" //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."//%Author% John Maynard Keynes//%Who%economist and author//%Source%"The Economic Consequences Of The Peace" //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"The Founding Fathers of this great land had no difficulty whatsoever understanding the agenda of bankers, and they frequently referred to them and their kind as, quote, 'friends of paper money.' They hated the Bank of England, in particular, and felt that even were we successful in winning our independence from England and King George, we could never truly be a nation of freemen, unless we had an honest money system. Through ignorance, but moreover, because of apathy, a small, but wealthy, clique of power brokers have robbed us of our Rights and Liberties, and we are being raped of our wealth. We are paying the price for the near-comatose levels of complacency by our parents, and only God knows what might become of our children, should we not work diligently to shake this country from its slumber! Many a nation has lost its freedom at the end of a gun barrel, but here in America, we just decided to hand it over voluntarily. Worse yet, we paid for the tyranny and usurpation out of our own pockets with "voluntary" tax contributions and the use of a debt-laden fiat currency!"//%Author%Peter Kershaw//%Who%author of the 1994 booklet "Economic Solutions" //%end%

%start%%cat=Conspiracy,Economics,Fed,Money,NWO,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."//%Author%Woodrow Wilson//%Source%In his book entitled The New Freedom (1913) //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IMF,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"In a small Swiss city sits an international organization so obscure and secretive....Control of the institution, the Bank for International Settlements, lies with some of the world's most powerful and least visible men: the heads of 32 central banks, officials able to shift billions of dollars and alter the course of economies at the stroke of a pen."//%Author%Keith Bradsher//%Source%New York Times, August 5, 1995 //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IMF,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is eager to enter into close relationship with the Bank for International Settlements....The conclusion is impossible to escape that the State and Treasury Departments are willing to pool the banking system of Europe and America, setting up a world financial power independent of and above the Government of the United States....The United States under present conditions will be transformed from the most active of manufacturing nations into a consuming and importing nation with a balance of trade against it."//%Author%Louis McFadden//%Who%Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency //%Source%quoted in the New York Times (June 1930) //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"(The Great Depression resulting from the Stock Market crash) was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived occurrence....The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so they might emerge as rulers of us all."//%Author%Louis McFadden //%Source%testified in Congress (1933). There were at least two attempts on his life by gunfire. He died of suspected poisoning after attending a banquet. //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Nothing did more to spur the boom in stocks than the decision made by the New York Federal Reserve bank, in the spring of 1927, to cut the rediscount rate. Benjamin Strong, Governor of the bank, was chief advocate of this unwise measure, which was taken largely at the behest of Montagu Norman of the Bank of England....At the time of the Banks action I warned of its consequences....I felt that sooner or later the market had to break."//%Author%Bernard Baruch//%Source% in Baruch: The Public Years (1960) //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Constitution,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are preserved to the states or to the people.' ... To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill (chartering the first Bank of the United States), have not, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution."//%Author%Thomas Jefferson//%Source%in opposition to the chartering of the first Bank of the United States (1791). //%end%

%start%%cat=Banking,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Mr. Speaker, we are now in Chapter 11... Members of Congress are official trustees presiding over the greatest reorganization of any bankrupt entity in world history."//%Author%James Traficant//%Who%Congressman//%Source%March 17, 1993 in the Congressional Record //%end%

%start%%cat=Democracy,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation."//%Author% Karl Marx //%end%

%start%%cat=Democracy,Despotism,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism."//%Author% Fisher Ames//%end%

%start%%cat=Deception,Economics,Fed,Government,Money,IRS,Truth//%quote%"It is inherent in government's right, if necessary, to lie... that seems to me basic - basic."//%Author%Arthur Sylvester//%Who%former Assistant Secretary of Defense //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fear,Money,IRS,Truth//%quote%"Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts."//%Author%Thomas Jefferson //%end%

%start%%cat=Honor,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Truth//%quote%"He who knows nothing is nearer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."//%Author%Thomas Jefferson //%end%

%start%%cat=Congress,Corruption,Deception,Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their jobs ... we have been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country... we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected."//%Author%John Danforth//%Who%Republican Senator from Missouri//%Source%in an interview in The Arizona Republic on April 22, 1992 //%end%

%start%%cat=Economics,Fed,Money,IRS,Taxation//%quote%"The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is... legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay ... If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system."//%Author%Frederic Bastiat//%Source%"The Law" (1848) //%end%