In Burton and Anita Folsom’s new book, FDR Goes to War, the following quote appears …
[A]ll of us owe the government; we owe it for everything we have—and that is the basis of obligation—and the government can take everything we have if the government needs it. . . . The government can assert its right to have all the taxes it needs for any purpose, either now or at any time in the future.
The quote is from celebrated Kentuckian A.B. “Happy” Chandler, a former Kentucky governor and grandfather of current 6th District U.S. Representative Ben Chandler. The quote is among several statements offered during the debate over the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943. If you don’t like federal withholding on your paycheck, you have that legislation to thank.
Think about what Chandler is saying here. It’s a breathtaking assertion that individuals have no innate property in their productivity or themselves. Under Chandler’s view, the government may rightfully take whatever it wants from you for whatever purpose. Does Chandler’s view really leave any room for a government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed? Is there any room for the protections provided by the Constitution? Does Chandler’s view leave room for the “inalienable rights” that we each possess by virtue of our existence? I don’t see how it could.
As Robert Higgs points out, if we can weather the dangerous claims of sweeping government power from people like Happy Chandler, we shouldn’t worry so much about the soft statism of gadflies like Elizabeth Warren.
You can watch Professor Folsom discuss his book here.
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In one of my earliest memories, Happy Chandler, running for office, came through our neighborhood (in Ashland) riding in a convertable with a loudspeaker to his mouth. I went running out to the yard, attracted by the noise. My father came after me, and when I asked, he said words to the effect of, “Don’t pay any attention to him. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and we don’t have any business with people like him.”
Now, given that Chandlers’ ignortant and damaging views have driven the state and country over the edge of reason, I’m glad my father isn’t here to see what’s become of the country he served and the values he risked his neck for (WW II).
When I read the quote you used, it kind of made me feel sick. We need smarter, more informed and educated citizens who know what’s at stake when they enter the voting booth, but I fear Happy and his fellow travelers have been successful in “dumbing down” enough of the country to keep the modern-day equivalents of Happy in office telling us lies that we’re too gullible to question.
I fear a strong U.S. government more than I fear the rest of the world’s militaries combined. And I miss my father.
You say, “Does Chandler’s view leave room for the “inalienable rights” that we each possess by virtue of our existence? I don’t see how it could.” This quote of yours goes to the very hart of the idea that America is a Christian nation. Our country, for the first time in history, (ie. America’s exceptionalism) gave worth and power to individuals…gave them “inalienable” rights ie. rights inherent as humans or GOD-given-rights. No one or no government can take them away.
When Happy says, “[A]ll of us owe the government; we owe it for everything we have”. Uh, no, we owe GOD for everything we have. If GOD chose to send a microbe to infest all of our trees and they die then guess what…there would be no lumber to build homes or businesses for a government to tax. If GOD destroys our country with earthquakes or oh I don’t know…a flood. Then we have no nation for government to take from. I healthy respect for the creator of this world puts the pathetic power of “government” into perspective.
The question of man’s righteousness–the barrier to the GOD/man relationship in the Old Testament– is solved on the cross. With Christ’s death, man can now freely choose to go GOD’s way…or not. It’s GOD saying I’m no longer going to enforce my righteousness like HE did in the Old Testament. I think Galatians says it best and most clearly–and notice this is at the end of the New Testament–”For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” 5:1 Of course, Galatians is talking about the yoke of slavery to individual sin, but it also implies the equal yoke of slavery to other sinful men and tyrants. William Penn, who was a Christian Quaker and an immediate forerunner to our Founders, btw also sums it all up nicely…
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants” Or tyrannical governments of the kind Happy is so inclined to.