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Americans like to say that we live in a free country. We have rights given to us by God that are enshrined in the Constitution.
I ask you, is that true? Do we have liberty? Real meaningful liberty? I would argue that we do not. I believe we have become functional slaves to our government – a government whose tyranny has no end unless we stand together and rise up and make our collective voices heard.
The fraud that has been exposed in Minnesota, Ohio, California, Texas, and many other states is shocking beyond anything I have seen. Elon Musk first brought it to light with his DOGE effort. I remember being shocked then. USAID should be shut down indefinitely. We must find out exactly how much of our $37 trillion in debt is due to fraud. I would venture to say that total is at least 80%.
But, we don’t know and that is just the issue: WE DO NOT KNOW. Until we find out exactly where our money has gone, is going, and will go – there should be no more spending. No money to foreign countries. No money to NGOs. No grants, SBAs, nothing. Get a budget together and stick to it. Fund the military, our infrastructure, Social Security, and Medicare but, that is it!
Would that be enough? I say NO!
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What does a citizen do when there is rampant fraud in the government? Gripe? Complain? Write a sick burn on social media? Yes, those things are important – and so is telling your family, friends, and neighbors what you have learned. But, most people are too busy to pay attention or frankly, do not want to pay attention. They may believe that nothing can be done so why bother watching or reading the news. They may not be wrong. They feel like they are alone; their voices crying out into the void.
What recourse do we, as the taxpayers, have? We have the power to assemble and protest our government as designated by the First Amendment. However, we know that our congressmen and senators don’t listen to us. Most have their own agendas. Somewhere along the way, many of them seem to work for themselves or special interests and not their constituents. If they truly worked for us, they would do their jobs and be fiscally responsible. But, they don’t seem to care.
We get threats about government shutdowns and continuing resolutions, threats/resolutions, actual shutdowns/resolutions, rinse and repeat. Politicians are constantly kicking the can down the road and no one has the spine to stop it and say enough is enough. If they cared about good Ol’ America, they would be trying to save her as she is slowly being crushed to death by the weight of debt. She is dying, gasping for breath.
When she dies, the western way of life is done. There is nowhere else to go. We are the last stand. And stand we must! But, how?
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WHERE TAXATION STARTED
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Let’s have a quick $2 history lesson. In the colonial days of early America, the King of England would impose taxes on whiskey, embossed paper, tea, ale, and many other products. These taxes were meant to demoralize the colonists, fund wars and lavish lifestyles, and show them just what bad “citizens” these unruly, uncivilized colonialists were.
As a matter of fact, most British citizens across the ocean didn’t view the people living here as equals, if they even thought of them at all. If you didn’t pay your taxes, you could have your property seized and/or be put in debtors’ prison. Often as a protest to the egregious taxes (3-5%), the people in the colonies would attack the tax collectors, burn their homes, and threaten their lives until they quit. They might destroy other property (think Boston Tea Party), or they simply wouldn’t pay en masse.
After the revolution, when the northern states began to impose high tariffs on goods coming from overseas, the south complained that it put them at a distinct disadvantage since they weren’t able to manufacture at the same capacity as the north and relied on goods from overseas. This, among other things, eventually led to an actual war among the states. When the War of Between the States began, the Union imposed the first income tax in 1862, 3% on the lower bracket and 5% on the higher. After the war, they lowered the rate until eventually, the government did away with it altogether.
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In 1894, Democrats took the presidency, Senate, and the House for the first time. Traditionally, the Republicans had opposed any sort of federal income tax. But the Dems imposed a 2% tax on anyone making $4000 or more. In 2025, that would be anyone making $150,000 or more. A short time later, the US Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.
Enter the Progressives. They began to take footholds in both major parties. These progressives pushed to get a constitutional amendment that would permanently place an income tax on the taxpayers to fund all the social programs that they had in mind. They knew this would be difficult since the law must be passed by 2/3 of each chamber and 3/4 of state legislatures. If that could be accomplished, then Congress would have taxation powers.
Many people didn’t think it would pass. However, since most didn’t like the tariffs and this was a way to keep money coming in, it passed in 1913. Coincidentally, in December 1913, the Federal Reserve was created in part by Woodrow Wilson, who I argue was the worst president who did the most damage in a short amount of time (actually it was Edith, his wife, acting in his stead after a stroke but I digress).
Voila! March 14, 1914 was the first tax collection day of the modern era. This was a 1% tax on those making $4000-$20,000 and 3% for those making over $50,000. Most Americans didn’t make even $1000 per year and thus didn’t pay. This sort of wealth distribution would have made Karl Marx beam with happiness.
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“Like slaves of old, we have no real way to protest our government and what they are doing…”
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Several years later, America found herself involved in The Great War. The income tax was expanded on her citizens to pay for this war. In 1917, the standard exemption was reduced to $1000 and the 1% became 2%. Anyone making over $1 million paid a 50% tax rate which increased to 77% at the height of the war. Read that again, 77%!!!!!
Taxes were reduced after the conflict ended but the damage had been done. Politicians realized what a cash cow this was. During WWII, Congress passed the Current Tax Payment Act. This allowed employers to simply withhold the tax amount from citizens’ paychecks to ensure compliance.
The government knew their history. They knew the problems the King had had when collecting. So to make things “easier” and “more convenient” for everyone (mainly themselves), they forced compliance. And thus, the American taxpayer was lulled in complacency.
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WHERE IT LED
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This is the moment we became slaves to our government, the FED, and our politicians. This allowed the government to spend our money any way they want and never be held accountable. Money flows out like water and when there isn’t enough, the FED just prints it.
Like slaves of old, we have no real way to protest our government and what they are doing, Yes, we can assemble, march, have protests, make social media posts, and even write op-eds. When was the last time the FED paid attention of any of that? When was the last time they paid attention to us at all. Our money is given to Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, the Taliban, Somalia, Israel, Korea, and more.
Why are we funding the world? Why are we funding our own demise? Why will no one listen to us?
The answer? Because they can and there seems to be nothing we can do about it. Our money is automatically taken out each pay period, by law. We must comply! Where is our Moses, saying let my people go? Where is our Fredrick Douglass? Who will champion the Taxpayer Emancipation Proclamation? I have proposed to repeal the act from 1943 and give people the opportunity to protest with their wallets. But I am just a state legislator. Where is congressman or senator who will champion this cause on the federal level? How do we protest in the private sector?
In 2023, when Budweiser went against the values of its customers, how did those customers protest? They stopped buying the product, cutting off Bud Light’s huge market share. Budweiser still hasn’t fully recovered. Money talks. But, the lack of money screams! We must end the FED and do away with forced taxes.
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I think we all agree that if we invested in a private company and they mismanaged our funds like our government has, we would pull our money and invest somewhere else until they got their junk together. We should be able do that with the US government. Quit throwing money at the sinking ship until they plug all the holes and repair it completely. I have some ideas on ways we can right this ship:
1. Repeal the Current Tax Payment Act so citizens will have to pay the government directly. This would show people exactly how much the government actually takes. They could also protest by not paying it at all.
2. Elect people to Congress and Senate who will actually fight to reform the IRS and simplify the code. Keep it simple. Less loopholes keeps more people from slipping through them.
3. End the FED. This small group of people control our entire money supply. Since 1913, the dollar has lost most of its value. This affects our buying power which is another hidden tax.
4. Shrink the size and scope of government. A government big enough to give you everything you want is powerful enough to take everything you have.
5. Conduct a forensic audit of every single government agency with a mandatory 10% cut the 1st year.
6. Mandate that congress MUST pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. There must be accountability.
I want to see those who stole from us face trial and then face consequences. I want to see justice done. What we are doing currently isn’t working. Some truths need to be faced.
The government either didn’t know the fraud was going on, it turned a blind eye, or nefariously, it aided in the fraud. Unfairness in taxes almost always leads to violence and that’s why we need to fix it now. We may be reaching an inflection point. Peace must be pursued at all costs. Fixing the IRS/FED/tax structure would go a long way to bringing peace and restoring people’s faith in government. What are your thoughts? Let’s have a chat!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Sarita Edgerton is a wife to Mike, a mom and a homeschool teacher of four, a realtor, and a freshman state representative for Spartanburg’s westside. Mike and Sarita teach the college and career class at River Hills Baptist Church.
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6 comments
Good Lord the Kool-Aid is strong with this one! If Elon uncovered so much fraud, which is a crime, were are the indictments?
So she homeschools her 4 kids (in Spartanburg) AND is a realtor AND attends the legislative session in Columbia from Jan-June? I’m sure she is doing a bang up job with all that.
The mere fact that this dullard refers to the Civil War as the “War between the States” should tell you all you need to know about her. She doesn’t even mention what her fellow legislators said about the immediate causes for war in 1852.
Excerpt from “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union”
“We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,” and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.”
Anyone who claims the civil war was not fought by SC to preserve slavery is ignoring facts.
Two key factors that have rendered We the People rather powerless and enslaved by our civil govt masters. First and foremost is the failure of the American church to teach and preach the whole counsel of God by shrinking behind the four walls huddling into pietism. The other is the success of our public education system by inculcating with the cultural Marxist philosophy and failure to teach America’s Christian history and Western Civilization to include the jurisdictions and authorities of social order based on self-government, morality, virtue and liberty and immersion into the Organic Laws of the US.
Weirdo.
We are taught and trained to “give your fair share” but when we ask who it goes to we are met with “you racist” which is a canned answer that means “sit down and shut up stupi”
Okay, the government’s ability to tax us is at most likely unConstitutional. Where in the Constitution is the right of the government to tax its citizens? I know, constitutional amendments and law. No, that still does not make it legal or morally correct.
The Fed? That private institution is the root cause of the declining value of the dollar and of the unnatural swings of the economy. Who in their right mind gives the power over their currency to a bunch of greedy bankers? The Fed needs to be abolished. Money matters should be handled by the Treasury with the oversight of Congress.
But, the biggest problem is the complacency of the people, taxpayers. We are either blind to or apathetic about the entire conduct of the government. Government exists for the purpose of serving the people. People do not exist for the purpose of funding government or its many follies. Until people rise up in anger and discontent, until the populace declares war on the government, which has quietly declared war on its citizens, until the people overturn the greedy corporation we call our government there can and will be no improvement in our condition of slavery.
The spirit of individualism, the willingness to abolish tyrannical government must be seething within the people before there can be freedom and liberty. Resist, stand up, be vocal and be prepared to fight, as in battle. If you are not willing to fight, be resigned to continuing taxation and destruction of the economy. In fact, be ready to see conditions of living becoming even more unbearable if you aren’t willing to fight for yourselves and future generations.