Didn't we fight the Revolutionary War so that we wouldn't have to pay taxes?

Didn't we fight the Revolutionary War so that we wouldn't have to pay taxes?

Jordan Goodman (Personal Finance Author) gives expert video advice on: How many taxes does the average American pay?; How much of my earned income does the government take?; What does the government do with my money? and more...

Well, we fought the Revolutionary War because we had taxation without representation. King George said we had to pay these taxes and we didn't have any say about it. In theory, anyway, we do have some say about it today in that we do elect our senators, representatives, and president -- all of whom set tax policy. And it does make a difference. A good example would be President Reagan in the 1980s. He cut taxes dramatically and he was very popular for that, and he got elected and re-elected because the populace liked that. We have elected other presidents who have raised taxes, so at least in theory we have some input in the level of taxation that we have to pay, as opposed to when we were just a colony and they imposed taxes whether we liked it or not. We didn't like it and that's what caused the revolution.