Republican and Democratic politicians alike are willing to raise your taxes anytime, on any pretext. But today they try to convince us that they have changed, that they are all low-taxers now. 

However, their proposals would only rearrange the existing tax burden. Because they have no concrete plans to reduce government, there's no way they can lower your taxes either. 

• As long as the federal government continues to do things that aren't authorized in the Constitution, politicians will have to resort to an income tax to pay for those programs.

The income tax is the biggest government intrusion into the lives of Americans. It forces every worker to be a bookkeeper, to open his records to the government, to fear conviction for a harmless accounting error. 

• The income tax penalizes savings and creates an enormous drag on the U.S. economy. It is incompatible with a free society.

So we must get rid of the hundreds of unconstitutional federal programs that the income tax is col-lected to pay for - but we can't remove them one at a time, because each program has beneficiaries and supporters who will fight us. 

• Libertarians are politically active in their communities. Here, Ken Kirkmeyer testifies before a Colorado House committee in 1998, opposing a bill that would force taxpayers to fund a professional football stadium.

Which is one reason why the Republicans' meager government-cutting efforts always fail. 

But we can overcome the resistance of the special interests by combining all the spending cuts into a single package that includes the largest tax cut in American history - the total repeal of the federal income tax. 

• That way most people can see that they'll save far more in taxes than they lose in handouts.

You can see what's at stake for you by taking out your last pay stub and looking at all the money you earned that went to the federal government. 

• How would you have spent that money if you still had it? Would you put your child in a private or religious school, where he would be taught the values and curriculum you want him to learn? Would you save up for that business you've always wanted to start? Would you increase your support for your church or favorite charitable cause?

By combining the reduction of government with the repeal of the income tax, every voter will know that the price of keeping today's federal programs is to continue paying the income tax. 

Every voter will know exactly how much he can gain. 

Voters will finally understand how they - and their families - will benefit by eliminating the complete package of unconstitutional programs. 

But this isn't what the politicians of the two older parties want. They like the power that comes from controlling your income. 

 Democratic politicians like a progressive income tax that's based on the ability to pay -meaning that those who have earned the most should be penalized the most. But their progressive tax rates somehow always hit middle-class Americans the hardest. 

 Republican politicians pretend to want to help by replacing the current version of the income tax with a giant sales tax, or with a flat tax. But neither will reduce your overall tax burden. 

Because they aren't reducing government, they're merely rearranging the same oppressive tax burden. 

 The Libertarian Party, by comparison, wants to end the income tax and abolish the IRS immediately - and replace both of them with nothing. 

By reducing the federal government to its Constitutional functions, we can do away with all direct taxes - the income, estate, gift, capital gains, and Social Security taxes - financing national defense and the federal judiciary with the level of tariffs and excise taxes being collected already. 

That's why the Libertarian Party is offering the American people what we call The Great Trade: 

Would you give up all of your favorite federal programs - such things as farm subsidies, student loans, PBS, and any other program - if it meant you would never have to pay income tax again? 

• While you're thinking about that question, let's take a look at the biggest and most dangerous of all federal government programs, and how we would handle it.