Why a national retail sales tax? Why not constitutional duties, imposts and excises?
A sales tax is an excise tax, an excise tax being a tax on a particular activity. The activities being taxed are retail exchanges in commerce. Therefore, a federal sales tax is arguably constitutional. Although we desire and expect Congress to live within constitutional limitations, we take issue with taxing only specific activities or industries. Such taxes are unfair, inequitable, and often not uniform. When one class of people or industry is targeted for a tax, the tax burden shifts to those people. This is unfair. Taxes must be fair to all people and all people must pay uniformly within their ability to pay. A national sales tax spreads the burden to all people and industries. Specific industry and class taxes do little but violate life, liberty, and property. Few excise taxes are levied fairly. For example, excise taxes on firearms, distilled beverages, tobacco, etc., unfairly target specific industries and classes of people. The decades-long conflicts between revenuers and moonsh
