by Jacob G. Hornberger

July 7, 2026

Leftist critics of President Trump’s war on Iran often couch their criticism in terms of other things that could be done with the billions of dollars that are being spent on the war. They point to things like public (i.e., government) schools, national healthcare, Social Security, welfare, and other federal and state programs and exclaim, “That’s where the money should be going instead of to fund the Iran war.”

This leftist criticism goes to show how differently leftists and libertarians view the financial aspects of Trump’s war on Iran. To be sure, libertarians oppose the war and the large amount of taxpayer money that is being spent on the war, just as we oppose the entire concept of foreign interventionism as well as the national-security state that drives it.

The difference, however, is that libertarians favor having the American people keep their own money rather than have the government spend their money on domestic welfare programs.

Leftists say that the federal government has the legitimate moral authority to take people’s income and do whatever the government wants with it. They would prefer that the government spend more of the seized money on domestic welfare programs and less of it on foreign warfare programs.

Libertarians, on the other hand, say that people have a natural, God-given right to keep everything they earn and decide for themselves what to do with it.

Let’s keep in mind that America was founded on the libertarian principle of no income taxation, not the leftist principle favoring income taxation. Ever since the Constitution called into existence the federal government in 1791 until the fateful year of 1913, there was no income tax and no IRS.

That’s right: for more than 100 years, Americans were free to keep everything they earned — 100 percent — and there was nothing that U.S. officials could do about. That’s what it once meant to be an American. That’s what it once meant to be free.

By the time the late 1800s came along, the standard of living of the American people was skyrocketing. A big reason for that phenomenon was that there had been no income tax for almost 100 years. Generation after generation was saving part of their income and passing it onto their children. By the time the late 1800s arrived, that massive amount of savings was converted into productive capital that made American workers much more productive. That enormous rise in productivity increased profits, wages, goods, services, income, and the overall standard of living.

Americans, whether wittingly or unwittingly, had discovered one of the major keys to ending poverty. People were going from rags to riches in one, two, or three generations. The rest of the world marveled at the economic miracle that was taking place in the United States.

It’s worth pointing out that America was also the most charitable nation in history. When people were free to accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth, they not only gave much of it away, they also used their leisure time to create organizations designed to help people in need.

It was all voluntary because our American ancestors knew that freedom of choice is an essential part of freedom. Just think: No Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public (i.e., government) schools, farm subsidies, bailouts, welfare state, or other coercive “charity.” Instead, strong family values, no dependency on the dole, and a deep culture of helping others on a purely voluntary basis.

Most important, in the relationship between American citizens and the federal government, the citizen was master and the government was servant. That’s partly because the government could not seize any portion of their income.

Ever since 1913, when the 16th Amendment was enacted, the situation has been completely different. The federal government owns everyone’s income and decides how much of it each person is going to be permitted to keep. The percentage that people are permitted to keep is essentially an allowance. The government is the master and the citizen is now the serf.

This way of life is now accepted as permanent by both leftists and right-wingers. They both favor the federal government’s power to seize people’s income. Their fight is over how the federal government should spend the seized money. Right-wingers, for example, want to spend it on both the warfare state and the welfare state but with more being spent on the warfare state. Left-wingers want to spend less on the warfare state and more on the welfare state.

Libertarians, on the other hand, oppose this dysfunctional and unfree way of life. We oppose not only the income tax but also the welfare state, the warfare state, the paper-money system, the drug war, foreign wars, and all the other statists programs that the income tax funds. We stand with the sound, positive principle of no income tax and no IRS and no welfare-warfare state that characterized our nation for more than 100 years. We stand for freedom, not for some warmed over serfdom that is falsely called freedom.