OPENING REMARKS
By
Bob Schulz
Legality of Income Tax Conference
June 29, 2000

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our Symposium here at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. I'm Bob Schulz, chairman of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, a not-for-profit organization based in northern New York, dedicated to research and education about matters of governance. This, as you know, is the fourth conference we've held here in the past twelve months to examine issues of illegal operations of the federal income tax system and the IRS. This is the symposium that explains the true meaning of the words "tax fraud and evasion." While the government is out there investigating and prosecuting citizens on charges of tax fraud and evasion, we've been investigating and charging that same government with real income tax fraud and evasion of questions and allegations regarding the legality of its tax operations.

The allegations have been framed for debate in terms of 4 propositions: 1) that the 16th amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the so-called income tax amendment) was fraudulently proclaimed to be ratified in 1913, when in fact it has been shown by exhaustive research in the state and national archives that it did not even come close to being legally approved by the required number of states; 2) that the income tax is voluntary, as there is no statute or regulation that requires most citizens to file and pay federal income taxes or to have those taxes withheld from the money they earn; 3) that citizens cannot "voluntarily" file a federal tax return without involuntarily waiving their 4th amendment rights under the Constitution; and 4) the IRS routinely and systematically violates and denies citizens' constitutional rights during its administrative operating procedures.

In talking about research into the fraudulent and illegal operations of the federal income tax system, we've sometimes referred to the story of the several blind men who bumped into an elephant and then got into a big argument trying to describe to each other what the beast must be like. In the matter of investigating the income tax, numerous researchers have focused on various aspects of it, but what their writings and conclusions all share is a common description of fraud, deception, hoax, and violation of our constitutional rights in the operation of the federal income tax and the IRS. The fraud appears to be of such an enormous scale, government's desire to keep citizens in the dark so strong, and the attempts to touch the beast so dangerous, that the analogy to an elephant and blind men is very appropriate, indeed. What we at the Foundation have tried to do is to help put all the descriptions together so that they can be seen as one big mosaic. To combine the work of several researchers is the only practical way to get a view of the whole picture, since it's just too large for any one individual to have done all the research on it alone.

We have a pretty full line-up of speakers today, and it's very gratifying. You can refer to your agendas and information in your packets for brief sketches of them. We have several new faces who will start the program talking about jury nullification of income tax failure-to-file prosecutions, based on lack of demonstrable evidence that there is any law or regulation that requires most citizens to file and pay income taxes. These courageous speakers are Whitey Harrell and Marcella Brooks from Illinois. There's a handout in your packets about jury nullification.

We also have two more employers who have stopped withholding taxes from their workers: Dick Simkanin from Texas and Nick Jesson from California. They have followed the lead of Dave Bosset from Florida, who has also come to be with us today. They'll tell us their courageous stories. Nick Jesson will be with us by phone at 11:30.

We've also rounded up the "usual suspects," the "accusers" as we might call them now, from our previous meetings: Bill Benson, former tax investigator from Illinois, who exposed the fraudulent ratification of the 16th amendment 15 years ago, and who, incidentally, co-authored a treatise in 1986 calling for a nationwide movement of jury nullification as a way for citizens to take control of the wrongful tax prosecutions that were ruining people's lives and sending many to jail; Joe Banister, former criminal investigator for the IRS, whose two-year investigation into allegations of fraud made by several researchers resulted in his report that concluded they were right; Bill Conklin, who has challenged the federal judiciary into conceding that the filing of federal tax returns is, indeed, voluntary ("non-compelled"), unfortunately, will not be with us today; Larry Becraft, who has defended many citizens in tax cases and challenged the judiciary with the 16th amendment argument, and was sanctioned for his efforts by judges determined to evade the issue of a fraudulent income tax; and Devvy Kidd, who has educated millions about tax issues with her booklets, radio, TV and newspaper interviews, and via her Internet web site.

We're very delighted to have as our luncheon speaker Mr. Edwin Vieira, Esq., renowned author and attorney whose specialty is constitutional law. This afternoon we're fortunate to have as speakers several gentlemen who have responded to our open invitation which was published in the Washington Times: Howard Phillips; Charles Collins; and Louis Wein.

All the speakers together represent what amounts to a multi-pronged attack upon the federal income tax system from several different angles: jury nullification in tax cases for lack of any law making most citizens liable; employers who stop withholding taxes from their workers for the same reason; exposure of the fraudulent 16th amendment and suing in state courts to nullify their ratifications; resistance against violation of our 5th amendment right not to bear witness against ourselves; insisting upon our right to confront evidence against us and summon our accusers for cross-examination in IRS proceedings; educating millions of people about the income tax issues in as many ways as possible, including use of the Internet and newspaper ads; and enlisting the support and voices of people prominent in government who share views about the illegal operations of the income tax system and the IRS, and who can help do something about it from within the government. Yet another prong will be the creation of a blue-ribbon panel of legal, constitutional & historical experts to study and report on all aspects of the allegations that have been made. We'll talk more about that later, and also about other suggestions that have been made.

Brief Review of Previous Conferences

I'd like to give you a little historical review of our previous conferences. This is the fourth time we've met here at the National Press Club in less than a year to discuss issues of the illegal operations of the federal income tax system and the IRS. We met here early last July to hold an academic symposium to hear arguments on both sides of the issues or propositions.

We heard several experts speak to establish those propositions I noted earlier. We had invited the leaders of our executive and legislative branches of the government to send knowledgeable representatives to our symposium to debate and refute the allegations of the experts. If the government had valid rejoinders to the allegations, it should have been a simple matter to send someone over to the press club to shoot down the researchers. What better way to lay all this to rest than for government experts to humiliate and embarrass the researchers on national TV by pointing out their errors for everyone to see? But they did not send anyone, nor did they even acknowledge our repeated invitations.

So we held another conference in November to further discuss the issues and what to do about them. Again we respectfully and repeatedly asked those same government leaders to send someone to speak to us, and again we got absolutely no reply, not even an acknowledgement. Out of that meeting came the decision to convene here on April 13th to deliver our grievances, in the form of a Remonstrance, to the leaders of all 3 branches of our federal government. Thousands of people from all over the country signed the Remonstrance over the winter, most of them electronically over the Internet.

The government again ignored invitations to the April meeting, and the delegates representing every state in the Union, after listening to speeches in the morning, spent the afternoon walking to the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court, where copies of the Remonstrance were hand-delivered to designated officials to be given to the leaders of those branches. At the White House and both houses of Congress, selected delegates, accompanied by a videographer, had an opportunity to discuss at length with the officials the contents of the Remonstrance and request that the government send its experts to another conference to be scheduled in June to finally debate the issues without evasion. This idea was agreed upon, and the Foundation set about to organize this conference in June.

However, a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the forum. The government decided not to participate in the conference after all. Jason Furman, Senior Director of the Economic Policy Committee, told me over the phone on June 2nd that "The legality of the income tax is not a high priority item at the White House, and we won't be sending anyone to the conference." Congressional officials also failed to follow through, and are declining the debate. All I can say is, they must be very busy and can't spare a single person. However, this is the 4th time, and we've now reached the point where the evasion must be regarded as an admission.

The Foundation determined to conduct the conference anyway. So here we are again.

At this time, I want to ask whether there is anyone here representing the executive or congressional branch of the government who has come to debate one or more of the propositions in question.

Well, it's clear by now that the government can't be shamed or provoked into answering the challenges, that the government has no defense against the charges, and that we must interpret their evasion as being an admission that the allegations are true. Apparently, not even our two-page ads in the Washington Times could prod them to respond. Wait'll you see our full-page ad in USA Today, next Friday. Now let's hear from our speakers.