Challenging the Rule of Law | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Challenging the Rule of Law | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Do you think the General Electric Co., which owns NBC, should have freedom of speech, but not FedEx, which does not own a media company?"

"Other corporations will now have the same rights that media corporations enjoy. One overlooked aspect of the ruling is that in the Internet age, almost any company can create a low-cost electronic newspaper, making it easy to get around the restriction if the Supreme Court had left the old rule intact."

"An IRS official said, 'We expect the Swiss government to continue to honor the terms of the agreement' — despite the agreement having been deemed unlawful."

"IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, in a Jan. 26 speech, said some 'taxpayers would be required to annually disclose uncertain tax positions in the form of a concise description of those positions and the maximum amount of U.S. income tax exposure if the taxpayer's position is not sustained.' The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution clearly states: 'No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.' Perhaps Mr. Shulman and his colleagues have never read the Constitution.

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution states: 'The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes,' yet the IRS routinely assesses taxpayers for taxes on 'imaginary' income, such as the portion of capital gains that are solely a result of inflation. For instance, if you paid $1,000 for 100 shares of stock in a company in 1983, and sold the stock for $2,000 in 2006, the IRS would claim you had 'income' of $1,000 and tax you on that. In fact, the consumer price index more than doubled in that period and you would not have been able to buy as much with the $2,000 in 2006 as you could have bought with the $1,000 in 1983. By any economic or dictionary definition of 'income,' you had none — yet the IRS lays what is, in effect, an unlegislated wealth tax on the inflation, which was caused by the government (i.e., the Federal Reserve)."