This time of year, how graced are we! Behold--
I bellow, heave; not fun. Curse, fume, harangue
'Til dawn. I browse receipts, review the code [1]
Sleep ruined: up quite late: complete this thang [2]
Indeed, I see the sunrise first each day
And curse the ones that madeth IRS
Which line by line each cent doth take away
To “share the wealth”, and steal up all the rest
And feed the feast of Goldman; "Sachs", acquire
These sons of asses, from us, booty, pry
On my death-bed? Estate tax: ne'er expire [3]
We're doomed by that which passed by churlish lie [4]
Pi**ed now, and peeved: Let’s vote out this whole throng
And send to Hell this tax that grieves: So long! [5]
_________________
OS (Original Sonnet)

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.




[1] The US Internal Revenue Tax Code, which according to various counts is somewhere between 3 million and 8 million words long. That's about ten times the length of the Judeo-Christian Bible, a hundred times the length of the Koran (Qu'ran), and almost as long as a Joe Biden speech (and makes about as much sense).

[2] "thang" = Fiddlegirlish for "thing"

[3] Even after you expire, the taxes don't.

[4] The first peacetime income tax in the US was proposed by Democrats (shocked -- we're *shocked*, we tell you!) in Congress in 1894. The next year, the US Supreme Court ruled that the tax was unconstitutional, because it was. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, which specifies Congress's power to tax, requires that, "Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States". In other words, you can't tax different people at different rates.

In addition, the Constitution specifically limited Congress' ability to impose direct taxes, by requiring Congress to distribute direct taxes in proportion to each state's census population. In other words, each state would be taxed according to its population, and each state would then be charged with raising the required revenue from its citizens. If this seems odd today, please note that the name of the country is *not* the United "People" Of America, it's the United "States" Of America. Why did we forget this?

A Constitutional Amendment was therefore required to satisfy the power-lust of Congress. To get the Amendment to pass, it was promised that it would always be a "soak the rich" tax, and that the middle class would hardly be affected. (Is it us, or is there an echo in here? -- that promise sounds awfully similar to some things said recently.)

The rate was 1% (*One* percent) on incomes up to $20,000, which in today's terms is about $433,000, thereby meeting that promise. The maximum rate was 7% on incomes over $500,000, which is well over $10 million in today's inflated dollars. With the promise that it would always be that way, the amendment was passed in 1913 -- oddly enough, this was the same year that the Federal Reserve was established. (See the link.)

The present *minimum* rate of 10% on the lowest-bracket taxpayers is greater than that applied to the ultra-wealthy when the tax began. The Government's batting average in keeping such promises: .000. For example, you're still paying an excise tax on vehicle tires that was supposed to be only for the duration of World War II. Didn't they sign some kind of treaty in 1946? -- but you're still paying that tax 64 years later. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

Please keep this in mind when hearing the present promises about the tax burden or cost of any new proposal -- like, say, Government health care?

[5] In both meanings: The tax code is "so long" (see [1] ), and "so long" = "good-bye!"