Vol. 42, No. 04
04/01/2026
Americans’ Onerous Tax Burden
AT A GLANCE
• A heavy progressive income tax is part of the Marxist program.
• The income tax was jacked up to pay for World War I — and never came down.
• Americans are quadruple-taxed on their incomes.
• Heavy taxes are the price we pay for a welfare/warfare state.
The U.S. tax code is a dizzying array and burdensome maze of rates, exemptions, exclusions, credits, deductions, worksheets, forms, phase-out levels, exceptions, and assorted “loopholes.” We are bombarded every tax season — especially by Republicans — with cries for tax reform because the tax code is too long, too complex, too confusing, and too time-consuming, and contains too many loopholes. Although these things are certainly true, they are the least of the problems with the tax code. After all, an income tax based on a shorter and simpler tax code is still an income tax.
Our Progressive Tax Code
Just before the beginning of tax season this year, a report by the Fraser Institute (a free-market think tank in Canada) revealed that Canadian provinces maintain some of the most progressive tax systems among the 45 high-income Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development jurisdictions studied. This included Japan, South Korea, most European countries, the Canadian provinces, and two American states. One of the report’s most shocking revelations was that “the two American jurisdictions analyzed in this study, California and Texas, ranked first and 4th most progressive, respectively, out of 45 jurisdictions, indicating that the US tax system is even more progressive than Canada.”
At the end of section two of his Communist Manifesto, in addition to calling for the abolition of private property and the centralization of the means of production in the hands of the state, Karl Marx petitioned for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” From its very beginning, the U.S. tax code has sought to soak “the rich” with “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”
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The full article includes detailed analysis of Massie's legislative strategy, exclusive quotes from the interview, and insider information about upcoming votes.
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