7/4/01  The Post Star  (NY)

Schulz fasting his way to Washington D.C.

IRS: Hunger strike won't force tax discussions

By JOHN GEREAU
gereau@poststar.com

GLENS FALLS -- Looking noticeably weakened three days into his hunger strike -- and moments before setting out to Washington, D.C. -- citizen activist Robert Schulz reiterated his vow to subsist only on water until the government agrees to debate the legality of the federal income tax.

At the same time, however, an official with the Internal Revenue Service said that Schulz's promise to starve himself will not goad the agency into a debate over an issue that has already been upheld on more than one occasion by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Pausing in front of The Post-Star offices in Glens Falls -- his first stop on a trek that will ultimately take him to the nation's capital -- Schulz said at age 61, he is willing to give his life to draw attention to the fact that the federal government has lost touch with the people it represents.

"I can't imagine that the federal government would allow me to waste away rather than answer a few questions," Schulz said. "If they are -- and if that's the kind of government we have -- then the people need to know about that."

Schulz of Fort Ann began his hunger crusade after an evening meal on Saturday. He has vowed not to eat until the IRS provides a list of government experts willing to meet in a public forum in Washington on Sept. 18 to debate the constitutionality of the federal income tax.

Schulz is chairman of the taxpayer reform group, We the People Foundation For Constitutional Education Inc., and has for the past two years maintained that the federal government does not have the statutory authority to withhold or collect income taxes from most of its citizens.

The group even spent more than $250,000 on full-page advertisements that appeared in USA Today and has organized four symposiums in Washington to present their income tax research to federal officials.

To date however, the group's plea for a face-to-face meeting with federal officials has fallen on deaf ears, prompting the hunger strike, he said.

But Laurie Ruffino, an IRS spokesman for the northeast region of New York, said the move will not result in a response from the agency.

Ruffino said the courts have consistently ruled against citizens who refuse to pay their taxes and said the U.S. Congress believes that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1913, gives the government the authority to collect taxes on incomes.

"Their battle is not with the Internal Revenue Service; it's with the courts and the U.S. Congress, they make the laws," Ruffino said. "But courts have consistently ruled over the decades that there is no merit to these arguments."

On Tuesday, Schulz said his campaign is bigger than just taxes, but about the various rights of citizens being stripped by government.

"This is not just about taxes, I pay all my taxes, always have, always will," Schulz said, speaking in front of large wooden billboards on a 16-foot dual-axle trailer he plans to park on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Lincoln Memorial.

Schulz said he has a 21-day permit to park on Pennsylvania Avenue and will live on a customized van used to tow the trailer. Traveling with him are a few supporters, including Roland Croteau, a successful Oklahoma businessman who also is fasting over the cause.

"I'm doing everything short of breaking the law and killing people to bring the government back inside the boundaries we've drawn around them," he said.

If the federal government doesn't start talking to the people and answering charges like the legal authority of the Internal Revenue Service it will only lead to citizen standoffs that could turn violent, Schulz warned.

"I'm trying to prevent violence," he said.

Tom Wade, a former Glens Falls councilman who turned out Tuesday morning to show his support for Schulz, said he believes Schulz's anti-income tax fight is just.

Wade said he's seen what can happen when the people are left out of the decision-making of government leaders. He pointed to decisions to build the civic center in Glens Falls and the trash plant in Hudson Falls as judgments that were made without being duly-debated with the public.

The federal income tax issue is a similar folly, he said.

Schulz said he will hold press conferences in several major cities along his route to Washington and said he will produce a video along the way that supporters can view at the We the People Foundation's Web site www.givemeliberty.org