“War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes.” – James Madison
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin
Those of you who remember the cry “Remember the Maine!” will recall that it became the rallying cry in the Spanish-American War. In 1898, a reluctant President McKinley sent the USS Maine to Havana, Cuba, in response to an increasingly volatile war between Cuban rebels fighting for independence, and Spain, which considered Cuba part of its overseas empire. When the Maine subsequently blew up, it was falsely blamed on Spanish saboteurs and America’s thirst for revenge forced a very reluctant President McKinley to declare war.
So those of you who remember this historic episode, good for you, but did you know that 117 years later you are probably still paying a tax put in place to help pay for that war? You may not see it on your phone bill, but 95 percent Americans who own a phone are still paying the “temporary” phone tax that Congress passed in 1898.
The tax seemed harmless at the time, and the amount of money it raised was not large given that only 690,000 Americans owned phones in 1898, and they were mostly rich people who, if they could afford a phone, could afford the tax. And, hey, it was patriotic. It was a tax to help fund a war against Spanish imperialists on behalf of Cuban freedom fighters. (Of course, after winning the war we became the imperialists, taking over Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and Saipan, and effectively governing Cuba for some time, which became a rather expensive proposition, necessitating more taxes, but that’s another story for another time.)
In short, it was billed as a patriotic, only-the-rich-would-pay tax to fight the good fight against an imperialist nation that had long been an adversary of the United States, and it would only be temporary.
And yet 95 percent of us are still paying it.
The moral of this story? One, wars are as sure an aspect of life as are death and taxes, and since wars tend to increase the numbers of deaths and taxes, be sure when you decide to engage in war that your cause is necessary, or at least just. Two, taxes, given birth, tend to live very long lives. It is a dead certainty that the “temporary” phone tax Congress passed in 1898 is just one of many thousands of taxes that were also supposed to be temporary, but are still taking money from our pockets, and many of them have — and are — helping pay for wars that many Americans don’t believe are necessary or just.
