Joe Barton: “I hold in my right hand a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America. When this document was ratified by…”

“I hold in my right hand a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America. When this document was ratified by the Original Thirteen Colonies in 1787, in article I, section 9, I want to read the following sentence: No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. What that meant was there could be no income tax in the original Constitution, but on February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment was passed to the Constitution that overrode that sentence that I just read. The 16th amendment says: The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States. We need to pass the two-thirds tax limitation constitutional amendment on the floor of the House of Representatives this afternoon to put back into the Constitution not an absolute prohibition against leveling income taxes but at least a supermajority requirement that will take two-thirds of the House and the Senate before we raise taxes.”