Josh Billings Was Right

The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so.
-- Josh Billings/1874

The two hour stream of consciousness diarrhea dump by The Manchurian President at CPAC was all the rage for the MSNBC pundits last night. I didn't watch any of the dump, of course, and each pundit took bit of it to task. Lawrence O'Donnell picked The Manchurian President's assertion that the US, stupidly, ended tariffs in 1913. O'Donnell went on to say that tariffs continued.

They're both half right, alas. It is true that prior to the sixteenth amendment, various attempts to have an income tax were struck down by the courts, so the amendment was necessary to have the tax. It is true that prior to the income tax, most of Federal revenue was from tariffs. It is true that the reason for the tax was to provide a more predictable revenue. It is true that substantially lowering tariffs was seen as a way to improve life for the 99% (not a concept then, of course). It is true that the income tax was imposed on the 1% (ditto).

But tariffs weren't totally eliminated in 1913. Just gutted in favor of the income tax. And tariffs returned with a vengeance during the Great Depression.

So, they're both half right.