ABSTRACT
Few nations can claim to have been built on the basis of a tax revolt, and even fewer can claim to have been obsessed with taxes throughout their history.1 America, however, is a nation obsessed with fiscal policy, even if this obsession is a subconscious one. The American Revolution was based on the principle “no taxation without representation.” Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” We may add that it is all but certain that Americans will put up a fight, sometimes to death, if taxes are involved, as exemplified by Shay’s Rebellion, and the Whiskey Rebellion. The obsession has not subsided with time, and the twentieth century has had its fair share of fiscal revolutions.
