Casten distorts history of taxation

Democratic Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois' 6th Congressional District distorts the basics of American history to fool the public and promote a false political narrative to primarily benefit the wealthy.

He states: "From the very first tax code, our Founders recognized the importance of allowing a deduction for state and local taxes." Our Founders did not establish any tax code - hence no deductions for state and local taxes. They were averse to taxation, having rebelled against British taxation.

Since our Founders had no tax code, and would cringe at the very thought, here is a primer on the actual American taxation history:

a. Congress passed the Stamp Act in 1797, that levied taxes on wills, personal estates, and transferred possessions of the deceased; repealed in 1802.

b. In 1861, Congress imposed its first personal income tax due to the American Civil War; rescinded in 1872.

c. Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act in 1862 which created the Bureau of Internal Revenue, an eventual predecessor to the IRS. The Bureau of Internal Revenue placed excise taxes on everything from tobacco to jewelry. Abolished in 1872.

d. Not until 1913 did a constitutional amendment permanently legalize an income tax, the code being 400 pages long, compared to today's 74,608 pages.

Casten's placing the Founding Fathers as advocates for state and local tax deductions is utter nonsense. Casten's focus should be directed at extremely high state and local taxation, not increasing the SALT deduction, which mainly benefits the wealthy.

"You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." So said the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.

Roger Kempa

Plainfield