We can sarcastically thank Benjamin Franklin for reminding us of the inevitability of death and taxes . But genuine gratitude is due to another founding father whose objection to the latter established a new precedent in human history — the tax revolt.
The historical record is unclear as to Samuel Adams’s precise role in the Boston Tea Party, but Adams was undoubtedly the foremost apologist for what took place in Beantown 250 years ago this month. The destruction of 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company by an unknown number of the Sons of Liberty was described by Adams as an action of “pure and upright principle.”
The taxes that Adams protested were not onerous. Tea was taxed at the low rate of 3 cents per pound. Adams rebelled against the notion that Parliament had the power to tax the American colonists absent American participation in Parliament. Since then, we have traded the low, nonconsensual taxes of the 18th century for the high, consensual taxes of the 21st. How did this happen?
It happened because American taxpayers are still inadequately represented. Sure, every taxpayer in the 50 states is entitled to one U.S. representative and two senators. But representation on Pennsylvania Avenue is not as important as representation on K Street. Among the capital’s lobbying corps, only one man represents the general interest amid the innumerable special interests. That man is Grover Norquist.
Like Adams, Norquist is a Bostonian who, despite undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University, lives modestly. He also shares with Adams a singular focus on making government accountable to taxpayers. Since 1985, Norquist has carried out that mission as the president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization founded at President Ronald Reagan’s direction to build support for what became the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
That landmark legislation lowered marginal tax rates and consolidated tax brackets through the elimination of tax deductions and credits. It was a rare triumph of the general interest over the special interests.
Even as a young man, Norquist was wise to the ways of Washington. He knew that because special interests are concentrations of power and the general interest is diffuse, any 1986-like victory for taxpayers is in danger of being rolled back. To counter this inherent disadvantage, Norquist provided taxpayers with a method of self-defense called the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
With elegant simplicity, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, or simply “The Pledge,” is a straightforward, no-loophole contract offered by ATR to every state and federal office seeker. It is an opportunity for politicians to make a written commitment to taxpayers that they will not support any net tax increases. Politicians are keen on avoiding responsibility for actions that draw the voters’ ire. The Pledge gives taxpayers an indispensable metric by which to hold their elected representatives accountable.
Adams spent much of his time organizing secret meetings and committees of correspondence to coordinate opposition to Parliament throughout the 13 colonies. For the last 30 years, Norquist has presided over an invitation-only meeting every Wednesday at ATR headquarters in Washington for activists strategizing to protect taxpayers from the relentless abuse of the spending interests. Analogs to the “Wednesday meeting” now exist in almost every state and in many foreign countries.
Like the Wednesday meeting, “The Pledge” has also gone international. Javier Milei, the newly elected president of Argentina, enthusiastically signed it on national television.
At every congressional budget fight, Norquist is excoriated by the spending interests for having the temerity to advocate for American taxpayers. And despite his best efforts, taxpayers routinely lose out to the special interest spending project du jour. But the spirit of Adams is alive in Norquist’s efforts to make government accountable to taxpayers by giving them a voice among the cacophony of calls for more government spending. And wherever that struggle is replicated around the world, the American Revolution rolls on.
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Paul F. Petrick is an attorney in Cleveland, Ohio.
The spirt of the American Revolution is alive and well
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22.12.2023
We can sarcastically thank Benjamin Franklin for reminding us of the inevitability of death and taxes . But genuine gratitude is due to another founding father whose objection to the latter established a new precedent in human history — the tax revolt.
The historical record is unclear as to Samuel Adams’s precise role in the Boston Tea Party, but Adams was undoubtedly the foremost apologist for what took place in Beantown 250 years ago this month. The destruction of 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company by an unknown number of the Sons of Liberty was described by Adams as an action of “pure and upright principle.”
The taxes that Adams protested were not onerous. Tea was taxed at the low rate of 3 cents per pound. Adams rebelled against the notion that Parliament had the power to tax the American colonists absent American participation in Parliament. Since then, we have traded the low, nonconsensual taxes of the 18th century for the high, consensual taxes of the 21st. How did this happen?
It happened........
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