No, that's a plan.
What principle is violated by the 16th Amendment?
1.
Equal protection under the law--taxes (and thus penalties for not paying a certain amount) are not distributed equally person to person, so the law applies differently depending on income.
2.
Taxation without representation--as income taxes are not apportioned among the states by population, or by a fixed amount on each individual (capitation), the effective representative voting power is disconnected from the taxes paid...this is the root of all the problems, as it allows a population to vote itself benefits paid for by a different segment of the population, remember, that is how it was passed to begin with--it applied to an exceedingly small population fraction, and was only a marginal rate of 1% IIRC...but has only grown from there.
3.
Due process, income tax and it's derivatives, specifically the estate tax and capital gains taxes (due to rule changes in how basis is calculated), combined with the legal penalties for not paying them, are technically an
ex post facto law--actions performed prior to one of those being raised can result in higher payments later, and associated legal penalties if not paid. Taxes are the ONLY retroactive way to be thrown in jail for actions performed before a law is changed. Of course, you could always pay the estate or capital gains taxes, oh, you can't afford that? Well, we will just take your property instead (due process AGAIN!)
4.
Equal protection and bills of attainder--as having an income tax ALSO allows for deductions or exemptions in how that tax is calculated, those can be made in an extremely and arbitrarily focused fashion (not to mention the original income tax was damn close to a bill of attainder given its focus), thus penalizing or benefiting citizens unequally based on their income or other choices. We can't pass a law saying "people that don't have two kids go to jail" but we have tax code that says if a childless marred couple otherwise identical in all aspects to a couple with two children doesn't pay MORE in taxes, they go to jail...odd no?
So not only are these fundamental principles violated, but look at it as a whole. The founders created a system of government that was (they hoped) resistant to the tyranny of a federal-level voting majority, hence an independent judiciary, bicameral legislature, and the FREAKIN TENTH AMENDMENT. So it is reasonable to assume that the constitutional prohibition on taxes that aren't director apportioned equally was done for a comparable reason--to prevent a population majority or plurality from visiting itself benefits at the expense of a smaller population group.
The 16th amendment tossed that all away, and has grown from "this very small group at the top should pay a little bit more" (where have I heard that before?) to what we have now...and people are STILL saying "this small group should pay more", whether it be the AMT, "new AMT" (buffet rule), steadily more progressive marginal rates, etc.
Basically, the 16th amendment CREATED leviathan by violating nearly all of the basic principles of our original government, including principles that were so important that they were specifically codified as "government can't touch these" in the bill of rights.
