Arthur Porth was a man of conviction, and that was the problem. Porth was convinced that the great evil facing 1950s America was not Jim Crow, misogyny, or even communism; no, the problem with America was taxes. Specifically, the 16th Amendment and the income tax. And Porth was going to take things into his own hands; Porth was simply not going to pay taxes.
Porth was later convicted of tax evasion, but his conviction only strengthened his celebrity. Porth quickly became a figurehead of the radical-right tax protest movement. Originally focused on antisemitism and the increasingly esoteric policy objectives of returning to the gold standard and abolishing the 16th amendment, tax protestors have evolved into a far more subtle, insidious force in American politics. The original manifestation of the protestors as an explicitly racist, antisemitic, Christian fundamentalist “moral” movement came to head in the 1980s when the IRS began to specifically crackdown on tax protestors. The movement peaked in 1983 before slowly declining into obscurity under the force of the law.
End of story, right? Wrong. Tax protest as an explicit movement was destroyed, but the types of interests, namely wealthy people wanting to pay less taxes, were far from gone. As part of the Republican Party’s long drift ever rightward, Congressional Republicans began implementing the long-standing tax protest objective of gutting the IRS of its enforcement capacity. Republicans first substantially reduced the IRS’ funding in 1995 before staging a kangaroo court to investigate alleged IRS abuses. As Daniel Levitas, a historian of the far-right, notes, Congress had at last “vindicated an old generation of tax strikers.”
Tax protestors alone are not to blame for the erosion of the IRS’ enforcement abilities, but they are certainly emblematic of a broader right-wing political project. Perhaps realizing that tax cuts for the wealthy are unpopular, anti-tax politicians have continually worked to undermine the IRS’ basic ability to carry out the tax laws set by Congress. This defunding of the IRS not only acts as effectively yet another tax cut for the wealthy, it also specifically targets poorer Americans. An American who receives the Earned Income Tax Credit, someone who is making at most $50,000 with children, is substantially more likely to be prosecuted for a tax violation than a wealthy business owner writing off, just hypothetically, $70,000 in hair styling.
Tax protestors offer something of a glimpse into the worldview of many Republicans. It is no coincidence that the same party which flirted with abolishing the 16th amendment also has such a notable history of harboring tax evaders. Spiro Agnew comes to mind as the most prominent tax evader, at least until recently. The most recent example is of course the President. News that he paid only $750 in taxes for 2016 was met with a muted Republican response, which should come as no surprise. In fact, evidence shows that those who align with Republicans politically also are more likely to try and evade taxes. To them, avoiding taxes is a quasi-politically principle.
One only needs to look around to see the sorts of harm that anti-tax mindset can cause. The wealthiest Americans pay less in tax as a percentage of their income than just about anyone else. That fact plays a substantial, though not total, role in contributing to the US’ runaway inequality. This inequality has massive effects on society. It plays a key role in why Americans’ standards of living are rising so slowly even as they work more and harder than ever before. Inequality also helps preserve the racial wealth gap that sees White Americans have a median family income $100,000 greater than the median Black family.
We need to rethink our relationship to government and specifically taxes if we want to sustain an agenda of combating inequality. There are tons of ways to do that. One promising avenue is to note the extent to which the Founding Fathers, despite popular perceptions, were not radical anti-tax reactionaries. For instance, some of the Founders even supported the now far-left wealth tax.
The first thing we should do though is start to appreciate the IRS for what it is and can be: a remarkably effective government institution. Even under decades of explicit hostility from Congress, the IRS has still managed, in a weakened and reduced format, to carry out its duties. We can even further improve the IRS by properly funding it. The great thing about funding the IRS is that the agency literally pays for itself. New IRS agents generate more in revenue than they cost to employ. Funding the IRS and ordering the agency to crackdown on tax evasion could raise as much as $1 trillion. This money should not be thought simply as an abstraction either. $1 trillion could be used to build solar panels, open schools, provide affordable health care, or protect social security. All of these are clearly more beneficial to society than giving the wealthy another tax break.
Of course it is going to be hard to start liking the IRS, but if we could, then we might start to have more productive tax debate. As Rutger Bregman said at Davos, “taxes, taxes, taxes. All the rest is bullshit.” He had a point. In some way or another, every issue is filtered through tax policy. Do you care about expanding healthcare to more Americans? Well, you are going to need a smart budget and tax policy to sustain your achievements and fund your healthcare. Are you afraid of climate inaction? Well, most economists agree that the single best climate policy we could implement is a carbon tax. Of course, it’s going to take the IRS to implement that one. Do you think inequality makes capitalism dysfunctional? Well, taxes, and transfers, are easily the best option there too.
Everyone who believes that government can be a force for good — hint, it can — should start acting like it. Let’s set our prejudices aside and learn to love the IRS because it may be our only hope.
