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Townhall...
Gullible Americans
by Walter E. Williams
Dec 28, 2011
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman has
called for states to mandate a total ban on cellphone usage while
driving. She has also encouraged electronics manufacturers -- via
recommendations to the CTIA-The Wireless Association and the Consumer
Electronics Association -- to develop features that “disable the
functions of portable electronic devices within reach of the driver
when a vehicle is in motion.” That means she wants to be able to turn
off your cellphone while you’re driving.
With very little evidence, the National Highway Transportation Safety
Administration claims that there were some 3,092 roadway fatalities
last year that involved distracted drivers. Americans ought to totally
reject Hersman’s agenda. It’s the camel’s nose into the tent. Down the
road, we might expect mandates against talking to passengers while
driving or putting on lipstick. They may even mandate the shutdown of
drive-in restaurants as a contributory factor to driver distraction
through eating while driving. You say, “Come on, Williams, you’re
paranoid. There are already laws against distracted driving, and it
would never come to that!” Let’s look at some other camels’ noses into
tents.
During the legislative debate before enactment of the 16th Amendment,
Republican President William Taft and congressional supporters argued
that only the rich would ever pay federal income taxes. In fact, in
1913, only one-half of 1 percent of income earners were affected. Those
earning $250,000 a year in today’s dollars paid 1 percent, and those
earning $6 million in today’s dollars paid 7 percent. The 16th
Amendment never would have been enacted had Americans not been duped
into believing that only the rich would pay income taxes. It was simply
a lie to exploit American gullibility and envy.
The fact of the matter is that the founders of our nation so feared the
imposition of direct taxes, such as an income tax, that Article 1,
Section 9 of the Constitution says, “No Capitation, or other direct,
Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration
herein before directed to be taken.” It was not until the Abraham
Lincoln administration that an income tax was imposed on Americans. Its
stated purpose was to finance the war, but it took until 1872 for it to
be repealed. During the Grover Cleveland administration, Congress
enacted the Income Tax Act of 1894. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it
unconstitutional in 1895. It took the 16th Amendment (1913) to make
permanent what the founders feared.
Another camel’s nose in the tent lie that’s threatening the economic
collapse of our country is the Medicare lie. At its beginning, in 1966,
Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee, along
with President Lyndon Johnson, estimated that Medicare would cost an
inflation-adjusted $12 billion by 1990. In 1990, Medicare topped $107
billion. That’s nine times Congress’ prediction. Today’s Medicare tab
comes to $523 billion and shows no signs of leveling off. The 2009
Medicare trustees report put the unfunded Medicare liability at $89
trillion. The 1966 Medicare cost estimate was simply a congressional
and White House lie to get the American people to buy into their
agenda. But not to worry; the real Medicare crisis won’t hit the nation
until today’s beneficiaries and political supporters are dead. It’s
today’s children who’ll bear the burden of our profligacy.
But back to the proposed cellphone ban. NTSB Chairwoman Hersman said:
“It’s going to be very unpopular with some people. We’re not here to
win a popularity contest. We’re here to do the right thing.” C.S. Lewis
warned us about people like Hersman, saying: “Of all tyrannies, a
tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most
oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under
omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes
sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who
torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so
with the approval of their own conscience.”
Read this and other articles at Townhall
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