Pay Your Respects To Abraham Lincoln On Tax Day: Opinion

No doubt you know that April 15 is Tax Day but did you know it is also the day that Abraham Lincoln died? Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14th and then died the next morning on April 15. In an uncanny twist of fate Lincoln created the Federal income tax by signing in to law the Revenue Act of 1861 to help fund the Civil War and thus created the future federal government. For these reasons Lincoln is often called the Father of big government (the federal government) and unbeknownst to most of us, we all literally “pay” our respects to Lincoln and his lineage by paying our federal income taxes each year.

Although Lincoln is rightly credited with freeing the slaves he essentially made each of us slaves to our federal government by creating the federal income tax and usurping states rights in most every other respect. The federal government has grown to dwarf our state, county, and city governments combined. And it now controls much of our lives. Many would say that we are no longer the United States of America (Plural) but the United State of America as our states, for the most part, are now centrally controlled by our federal government.

There are many reasons why states rights are important, ironically one of the most significant is diversity; such as diversity of thought. For example, when we have 50 states we have 50 opportunities to get something done right as contrasted against one central Federal government dictating one solution for all. When the federal government dictates one solution and gets it wrong it then becomes an enormous problem for everyone. Whereas, 50 different states can try 50 variations on a solution each tailored for their own needs, demographics, geography, etc. And then each state can then observe the other states and benefit from their successes and failures without it being a catastrophic mistake for the entire country.

So when you pay your taxes this year remember the saying “The only thing certain in life is death and Taxes” and remember that Tax day is an uncanny reminder of both with the assassination of the Father of the Federal income tax- Abraham Lincoln- and our ever expanding federal government.