Illuminating Progressive Taxation: Why do we collect taxes? Mostly to pay for War and its wealth destroying costs! The 1st taxes levied paid Revolutionary War Debt. The Constitution allows the government to collect taxes for the following reasons; "to pay the debts and provide for the common welfare of the United States." 
The History Of Income Tax: How did we get an Income Tax? Abraham Lincoln the father of the GOP gave it to us. You see, he had a War to pay for. Imagine that, paying for a War! Whom did the tax apply to? The top 1% of income earners! Holy shit, a Republican pushing a progressive tax to actually pay for something! Seems todays GOP has lost its historical origins. In 1872, the Lincoln Income Tax was struck down. However, in the 1890's the American people by overwhelming majority brought it back. Why? Because it applied only to the Super Wealthy! In 1894, they passed a 2% tax on all personal and corporate income over $4,000 per year. Very few American were in this income class, so progressive taxation was established to pay our War debts and help the general WELFARE of the Nation! What has changed, why do we now see the Wealthy as sacred cows, not to be touched, why do we no longer raise revenue for WAR?
T.R. The Great Tax Collector: The 1894 income tax law was struck down in the Supreme Court, but the issue did not go away. Populist and Democrats supported the new tax, the GOP opposed it. Who brought the Income Tax storming back, the GOP giant Teddy Roosevelt! In 1908, T.R. broke with his party and called for both income and inheritance taxes!!! What has happened to todays GOP? They brought us the Progressive Tax System that pays for our countries debts, and general WELFARE! Now they wish to shift those burdens to the poor and the working class! Why?
War Taxing The Masses: How come we now tax millions of Americans income? WAR!!! That killer of wealth and men! Yes, the reason that started it in the 1st place expanded income taxes massively! World War I, left the Nation with a 19 Billion dollar debt! This debt had not been paid before we engaged in WWII! More debt, more taxes! The Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq!!! The last two wars, no attempt was made to pay for them! So we charged that to the credit card! $700 Billion dollars a year goes to Defense, more than half of what we spend yearly! If we hate being taxed on a massive level, stop starting WARS!!! War breeds taxation, the bombs and bullets must be paid for..... some day! We have been riding an ever escalating machine of War sine our Countries birth is the largest generator of our debt and the level of taxation we have. Very little has been spent on the common welfare of the Nations people. Seem it is time we changed priorities.... from WARFARE to WELFARE!