1/ Congress passed income tax amendment in 1909. Why? -Wealth & inequality had exploded -Tariffs and excise taxes were deeply unfair & regressive -Govt was growing b/c it was doing new things like keeping food safe - ThreadSky

jeisinger.bsky.social • 1 day ago

1/ Congress passed income tax amendment in 1909. Why?

-Wealth & inequality had exploded

-Tariffs and excise taxes were deeply unfair & regressive

-Govt was growing b/c it was doing new things like keeping food safe

Reposted from Jeff Stein

Trump says the US was proportionally the richest it ever was in late 1880s/early 1900s, before in 1913 establishing the federal income tax "for reasons unknown to mankind" (??), which led to the Great Depression, which "would never have happened if they stayed with the tariff policy" (???)

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marktmancini.bsky.social•1 day ago

📌

dwegeng.bsky.social•1 day ago

Don't forget that it enabled prohibition.

musicmark.bsky.social•1 day ago

They are lying about each countries US tariffs. Everyone just taking their word. When will journalists question how they got their made up figures

jeisinger.bsky.social•1 day ago

2/ Cordell Hull, a Tenn Dem & the father of the income tax, said then, “The world has never seen such colossal fortunes as we behold in the present age.... the Carnegies, the Vanderbilts, the Morgans, and the Rockefellers, with their aggregated billions of hoarded wealth.”

jeisinger.bsky.social•1 day ago

3/ Hull said, “It would seem that this class of people consider themselves almost immune from any kind of taxation.”

jeisinger.bsky.social•1 day ago

4/ He closed a speech with a warning to his Congressional colleagues: “Public sentiment is becoming aroused,” to loud applause.

jeisinger.bsky.social•1 day ago

5/ Anti-Income Tax Republicans controlled Congress then but supported the amendment as a legislative gambit to get -- wait for it -- a tariff bill passed.

Then to their shock, the states ratified it by 1913!

jeisinger.bsky.social•1 day ago

6/ It's one of the great own-goals in American history.

massivruss.bsky.social•1 day ago

Trump: hold my adderall.

jeisinger.bsky.social•1 day ago

7/ Hull also said we would need an income tax if we had a war.

And guess what? We did -- and we did. The income tax saved our ass in WWI.

jefffowler.bsky.social•1 day ago

Was Schumer quoting this guy the other day?

dmlundeen.bsky.social•1 day ago

Hull not coincidentally is also the father of U.S. free trade policy and had a hand in establishing the United Nations, correctly believing trade and diplomacy were crucial to maintaining peace after the two world wars.

doctorcarrie.bsky.social•1 day ago

And that's like a no-duh believe. If people can live well of their trade with each other, why attack? Problem is the US stopped helping ensure their people lived well since the 1980s.

jeisinger.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yes FDR called him the “father of the UN” and “father of the income tax.”

Hell of a career!

freshhotcoffee27.bsky.social•1 day ago

Does anybody but Trump believe this shit?

bkilus.bsky.social•1 day ago

https://bsky.app/profile/angrystaffer.bsky.social/post/3llul2b7ai22m Can we say M-O-R-O-N-in-Chief? @kairyssdal.bsky.social

drd88.bsky.social•1 day ago

So effing dumb this man.

mktsutherland.bsky.social•1 day ago

📌

hellscapenavigator.bsky.social•1 day ago

Also the Prohibition movement knew it would need the revenue if taxes on alcohol vanished

markabuchanan.bsky.social•1 day ago

I want to say that before that 20 years before *radio was even invented, we were not the richest we had ever been.

moongirlsusie.bsky.social•1 day ago

The 1929 stock market crash triggered the great depression, along with banking panics & a decline in intl trade due to tariffs.
Panicking banks called in their loans to smaller banks, who then had no choice but to call in mortgages.
My grandparents lost their farm & my dad grew up a tenant farmer.

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