“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” - Thomas Jefferson
“WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
― Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”
― Smedley Butler
“To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket. 1. We must take the profit out of war. 2. We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war. 3. We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.”
― Smedley D. Butler
“Victory or defeat will be determined by the skill and ingenuity of our scientists. If we put them to work making poison gas and more and more fiendish mechanical and explosive instruments of destruction, they will have no time for the constructive job of creating greater prosperity for all peoples.”
― Brig. Gen. Smedley D. Butler
There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. - Gen. Smedley Butler
“Rather than passing a thousand pages of tax reform legislation and restarting the tax code manipulation process, we should change the paradigm. It is time to eliminate the IRS and repeal the 16th Amendment.” Jim Bridenstine
"Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt." William Cobbett
"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." Leona Helmsley
Income taxes are responsible for the transformation of the Federal government from one of limited powers into a vast leviathan whose tentacles reach into almost every aspect of American life.” Ron Paul
"One thing is clear: The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens would pay nearly half of everything they earn to the government." Ron Paul
"The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan
"You can't tax business. Business doesn't pay taxes. It collects taxes." Ronald Reagan
"What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin." Mark Twain
“1913 wasn’t a very good year. 1913 gave us the Federal Reserve System, the Income Tax, the 16th Amendment, and the IRS.” Ron Paul (COINCIDENCE??)
TAR & FEATHERS, just for the Opening Act.