by Nancy Houser

Created on: August 09, 2011

" 'The Civil War income tax was the first tax paid on individual incomes by residents of the United States,' wrote Cynthia G. Fox, chief of the Military and Civil Records Unit of the National Archives. An article she wrote for an Archives publication recounted the gory details – not of the war, but of how it was financed."

Ongoing debt debates and the debt ceiling crisis are highly contentious, not only in the United States, but throughout the entire world. Now, more than any other time, money and financial conditions are at the heart of every political debate.

According to Kyle Wingfield, in 2010 the U.S. public debt had increased by $48,931,678.70 every ten and a half days, adding to the public debt (also called the government or national debt) the equivalent of fighting the Civil War 35 times a year. (The National Debt: A civil war every week and a half) This debt is a financial obligation owed by the U.S. government, making it an indirect debt of the country’s taxpayers.

In August alone, the U.S. government will bring in revenue of $173 billion dollars in taxes and approximately $29 billion in interest payments on Treasury certificates. Combined 2011 government revenue consists of the total direct revenue from the public of $4.5 trillion dollars, income tax revenue is $1.5 trillion dollars, Social Security tax revenue is $0.9 trillion dollars, ad-valorem tax income is $1.1 trillion dollars (real estate taxes or personal property), fees and charges are trillion, and business and other revenue is $0.6 trillion dollars. (Associated Press)

According to the Associated Press report, Alabama officials are still collecting the “Lost Cause” tax originally set up to assist Confederate soldiers and their families. This tax revenue was sliced up and sent elsewhere as each Confederate soldier and his wife died.  

Today it funds over $400,000 annually for the Confederate Memorial Park that sets on the same 102-acres as the once-funded Alabama Confederate Soldier’s Home that closed in 1934.

This year, the park budget was $542,469 while other Confederate tax funding went to veteran services and the Alabama welfare agency. State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a black Democrat, is having a difficult time slashing the park funding in order to send it elsewhere…needing support from Republicans who are in control of the governor’s office and the Legislature. 

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