Mitt Romney complained:
“There are 47 percent of the people…who pay no income tax.”
But in 1805, President Thomas Jefferson bragged about the same thing:
“…it may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask, what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?”
How did Jefferson fund his government without taxing the little guy? Answer: with tariffs, which were primarily paid by rich people on imported luxuries.
Modern-day neocons would consider Jefferson a communist, and water-board him at Guantanamo for daring to tax the rich. Globalists would consider Jefferson a menacing protectionist who was lucky that his tariffs didn’t cause the world to explode.
But somehow, the world didn’t end. As a matter of fact, the USA grew to great-power status behind its high tariff-wall.
