I was fascinated by historian Heather Cox Richardson’s interview with Vanessa Williamson on her book The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History.

In addition to learning about the way attitudes on taxes have shifted over the past 200 years, she lays out the case that taxes are a way to involve accountability to the people in government spending which is why the Trump administration has increasingly turned to alternative things like tariffs, fees, corporate donations, and spoils of war to fund their unpopular agenda.