By: Jay Loeffers

Hi everyone! Glad you could make it back for Part 2 of my real history of FDR. When you think of paying taxes, you think of the paperwork and all the record keeping you have to do if you own a home, have a family or own a business. If you have all three of those, then there are the lawyers you have to hire and a CPA. Then there are the ever changing tax codes and regulations you have to keep up with and translate. Eventually, your number comes up for an IRS audit and an agency that is supposed to be a so-called SERVICE agency doesn’t act like one at all. Just ask Willie Nelson and Wesley Snipes (those two being extreme cases and they did break the law).

The first version of the progressive income tax was designed by Woodrow Wilson and of course, he needed a government agency to handle this. Both Wilson and FDR were very progressive presidents that believed in Keynesian economics – that income should be limited by law and that rights are granted by the government. FDR was anti-business in every way. It has been revealed that FDR was a failure in business at one time. So that lead me to the belief that progressives that hate successful people the most are the biggest failures in their own lives and want to pass the misery on.

In 1943, the “Revenue Act of 1943” was passed and raised the tax rates across the board. Then FDR created the “pay as you go” system for payroll taxes. He wanted to pass a new tax law that would put a 100% tax on incomes over $25,000 a year and fortunately, that didn’t pass. Then there was the “War Bonds Act” and the media hype of that program. Think about it… he used tax payer’s money to fund media ads to remind you to pay your taxes (like those damn street signs along the highway telling you these signs were paid for with stimulus package money, so you know your taxes are hard at work). The same pay as you go tax system is being used to pay for social security which has been bankrupt and corrupt for so long.

There was one voice of sanity during this time. On March 22, 1943, an opposing tax bill called the Ruml Plan called for the 1942 tax year to be forgiven to relieve the burden on taxpayers. This tax bill caused a major upheaval in congress right down the line.

Rep. Rankin (D-MS) stated: “Personally, I am not for forgiving these millionaires.”

Why is that? What did these millionaires do to you that was so evil you can’t forgive them or cut them a tax break?

Senator La Follette Jr. (R-WI) stated: “In 18 years in congress he had never seen such a sharp division of opinion among honest men,” (over all the new tax laws).

It seems that Mr. La Follette Jr. was not aware of the divided nature of the first congress or the constitutional convention or he would of seen some real fireworks.

Rep. William Miller (R-CN) stated: “It is tragic, that we must admit that there are some people who so despise the few wealthy men and women left in the United States.”

Do I ever agree with that statement! This same hate for the wealthy from progressives in the congress, the House and the Senate, is a game still being played today.

FDR used the media to his advantage in order to sell his tax laws and even pass a new law called the Network Allocation Plan to force radio stations to play government PSAs at regular intervals during the day. He hired music composer Irving Berlin to write a pro-tax song and had singer Danny Kaye sing it at nightclubs on his tours. Disney got into the act with a short film called “The New Spirit,” giving Donald Duck the tax message of, “It is your privilege to pay your taxes, not just your duty to pay your government.” Top rated radio stars of the day played into this to remind everyone to pay their taxes as required. This was through the infamous, “Taxes to beat the Axis” campaign.

Now let’s look into how FDR used the IRS to defeat his enemies and how it was used against his supporters. There were newspapers at this time that were not shills of the government and they did write opposing views of FDR and his ideas. There was one in Chicago that really got under FDR’s skin; his name was McCormick and FDR tried throwing the IRS at him. That didn’t work, so he threw the FBI at him, which almost worked. FDR was always happy to use the IRS to make his opponents go away and even so far as to throw his friends and supporters under the IRS bus if they were no longer useful to him.

If you would like any of my files on this subject, please e-mail me at [email protected], free of charge and thank you for your kind e-mails and file requests.