{"id":592257,"date":"2026-04-28T03:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=592257"},"modified":"2026-04-28T03:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:25:00","slug":"america-land-of-the-not-really-free-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=592257","title":{"rendered":"America: Land Of The (Not Really) Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

America: Land Of The (Not Really) Free<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Ron Paul via the Ron Paul Institute<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump commemorated income tax payments being due by having DoorDash deliver food from McDonald\u2019s to the White House. <\/strong>The delivery was intended to highlight the first year of tax-free tips. Removing tax on tips was part of the 2025 Big Beautiful Bill (BBB).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As the sponsor of the first No Tax on Tips legislation introduced in Congress, I was obviously pleased to see this change in tax laws included in the BBB. The bill also included other good tax changes such as removing tax on overtime and extending the 2017 tax cuts. Unfortunately, <\/strong>the bill also increased federal spending and debt.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the income tax implicitly endorse the idea that our rights are gifts from government and, thus, can be revoked by government at the will of our rulers. Adoption of the income tax signified the abandonment of the belief that individuals have inalienable rights granted them by the Creator.<\/p>\n

Therefore, those who believe in natural rights must reject income taxation. It is also a violation of the people\u2019s rights when the central bank reduces the value of the dollar, and thus the people\u2019s purchasing power, via the hidden inflation tax.<\/p>\n

The income tax system\u2019s rejection of natural rights is exemplified by withholding that gives government first claim on an individual\u2019s earnings<\/strong>. The government then may return, via what it calls a refund, some of what was taken. However, a normal refund is when a business returns a customer\u2019s payment because the customer is dissatisfied with the good or service he received, not when a thief returns some of what the thief stole.<\/p>\n

Withholding was implemented during World War Two as a \u201ctemporary\u201d wartime measure. Yet, it is still with us decades later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Milton Friedman, as a young economist, played a role in the US government\u2019s development of withholding. Of course, Friedman went on to become a leading advocate for free markets. He also redeemed himself for his work on withholding by becoming a prominent advocate for ending the military draft.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The draft is the worst example of how the government has rejected the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The draft gives government power to force young men (and possibly young women) to join the military and kill or be killed in a war. Contrary to the beliefs of some progressives, support for the draft is not justified by allowing individuals to choose between serving in the military or performing some other form of mandated \u201cservice.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the US does not have a military draft, the infrastructure for the draft remains in place via Selective Service registration. A provision in this year \u2018s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows Selective Service to automatically register all men between the ages of 18 and 25. This makes it easier than ever for government to reinstate a draft.<\/p>\n

Income taxes, along with the military draft and other types of mandated \u201cservice,\u201d are incompatible with a free society and should be opposed by all who value liberty and peace. As Ronald Reagan said in a statement that could be modified to apply to income taxes, the draft \u201crests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state\u2026. That assumption isn\u2019t a new one. <\/strong>The Nazis thought it was a great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 04\/27\/2026 – 23:25<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America: Land Of The (Not Really) Free Authored by Ron Paul via the Ron Paul Institute, Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump commemorated income tax payments being due by having DoorDash deliver food from McDonald\u2019s to the White House. The delivery was intended to highlight the first year of tax-free tips. Removing tax on tips… Continue reading America: Land Of The (Not Really) Free<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-592257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=592257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/592250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=592257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=592257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=592257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}