I’ll just get this out of the way: There are a lot of stupid people in this world, and some of those stupid people are going to see America: From Freedom to Fascism and buy into its half-baked, hole-ridden, libertarian rhetoric about the alleged illegality of the federal income tax. And that’s a shame, if for no other reason than it’ll be a small defeat for logic.
Director Aaron Russo used to produce movies that were intended to make us laugh, like Eddie Murphy’s hilarious Trading Places—but now he’s resigned himself to providing unintentional humor. Jocking every trick Michael Moore has ever used, Russo implants himself into his documentary as interviewer, narrator, and man on the street with a microphone. Trouble is, the frog-faced Russo is nearly unwatchable. Where Moore is a working-class everyman (albeit one with an agenda), Russo is quite clearly of a different caste: Hollywood mogul (albeit one whose creative well has run dry). It makes his vox pop moments fall flat, and you can only hear, “Hi, I’m Aaron Russo—I produced the movie Trading Spaces with Eddie Murphy” and “I’m Aaron Russo, award-winning film producer” so many times without doubling over.
Where the film really shits the bed, though, is when it tries to prove its point. By presenting half-baked ideas with the faux certainty that comes through sheer repetition and bending historical facts to fit his agenda, Russo manages to portray the legality of the income tax as something actually worthy of debate. Thing is, it’s only up for debate among anti-tax conspiracy theorists who have anarchist, anti-social tendencies.
So, let me settle this: The 16th Amendment of the US Constitution gives Congress the power to impose an income tax, and Congress delegated that authority to the IRS. It’s been upheld by numerous Supreme Court cases—including some that have been twisted by Russo and his “tax honesty” cohorts.
And since the filmmaker himself doesn’t mention it, I will: Russo has $2 million in tax liens with the IRS. Kinda makes you question his impartiality.
I like how you point out the specifics of what it is that is half baked or untrue. You really don’t challenge anything, you just attack Russo’s character. How about you mention what it is in the film that you disagree with, or better yet present facts that support your case?
Because he is incapable of presenting facts supporting his case against Russo. He can’t show us the law, because it doesn’t exist. Moore behaves like a typical politician, attempting to influence those among us who do not think critically because they are the majority.
From a psychological perspective, one could say that Moore is merely trying to reduce the cognitive dissonance that arises from the very real possibility that he may have been deceived over the years like so many others, and so has convinced himself that his own “arguments” are valid.
Both of you are wrong. The Internal Revenue Code of 1954 was passed by both houses of Congress as House Resolution 8300, and was signed by President Eisenhower on August 16, 1954, at about 9:45 a.m., becoming Public Law 83-591, 68A Stat. 3.
There is your law. Go look it up or spend time in jail for not paying your taxes.
Scott Moore has a valid position on this, although his character assassination of Russo and labeling of anyone who considers that there may be a case here as ‘anarchist and anti-social’, I believe, cheapens this article.
At least Moore, unlike the IRS, appears willing to accept that the tax is unconstitutional. It’s just that he thinks that unconstitutional can also be acceptable.
The only part of this article that is remotely relevant is his reference to the 16th amendment which unfortunately is flawed and irrelevant to the argument. The argument is one of unconstitutionality rather than law enforcement issue. It is also an issue of the nature of the US government.
If the law existed this issue would have been nipped in the bud long ago, the reality is the law doesn’t exist, it’s just whether you think that this is acceptable or not and whether it’s acceptable for the government to lie to you.
If the Supreme Court, according to Russo, confirmed in eight different cases that private income tax, or taxation of labour, is unconstitutional, the passing of an IRS code through congress doesn’t change anything when it comes to the legality of the issue. In other words like Russo put it: “The IRS and the Government are not beyond the Supreme Court”.
“Trouble is, the frog-faced Russo is nearly unwatchable. Where Moore is a working-class everyman”…
Hmmm…now what could “frog-faced” and “clearly of a different caste: Hollywood mogul” possibly mean?
While Michael Moore is a “working-class everyman”, in other words a good ol’ boy from Flint, Michigan of hillbilly stock.
Dog whistles all.
Then again, attacks on libertarianism from the economic populist left almost always have a latent anti-Semitic angle, hinging as they do on crude dismissal of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, Milton and David Friedman..and now, apparently, Aaron Russo… as the ideologists of some imagined group of cosmopolitan John Galts, seasteaders, and tax evaders, in contrast of course to red-blooded “real Americans” who pay their taxes; work for an hourly wage; join unions; become cops, teachers, janitors, firefighters and other “public service” employees; and vote for anyone with a “D” after his name.