In an age of endless voter registration drives and histrionics about power to the people, it can be hard to remember that the Constitution was deliberately designed to cushion the raw will of voters through representative democracy.

Why do this? Benjamin Franklin summed it up succinctly, if ungrammatically: “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Of course, the money you vote yourself from the government has to come from somewhere. And in a country that even under Barack Obama would never consider endlessly printing currency a la Zimbabwe or Yugoslavia, that money has to come from either taxation or borrowing — which is merely deferred taxation.

Taxation, therefore, acts as one of our political system’s checks and balances; a vote for a bigger government is ultimately a vote for higher taxes.

This safeguard began to unravel with the 16th Amendment, which allowed income taxes for the first time ever in our nation’s history.

Things have gotten worse ever since. According to 2006 census data, only 40 percent of our voting population pays 95 percent of the income tax bill, far more than their share of actual income.

Another 40 percent of U.S. voters now pay no income taxes whatsoever. The only thing keeping their finances linked to government profligacy is payroll taxes.

Obama’s tax plan would tip the balance in favor of big government.

All of his so-called tax credits are “refundable,” meaning that even people who have no income tax liability would receive a check from Uncle Sam.

By giving “tax rebates” to people who already pay no income taxes, Obama will cancel out the burden of payroll taxes and turn about half of voters into net receivers of government benefits.

If these voters dare work their way into higher incomes, they will find their tax credits have “phased out.”

Such a system will keep the working poor in a state of dependence on the government.

Voters paying no taxes and simultaneously receiving government subsidies will see no incentive to worry about runaway entitlement spending funded by someone else’s taxes.

According to the Tax Policy Center, Obama’s tax plan would result in half of the population controlling half of the voting power while paying zero percent of the federal tax bill, with a further 11 percent paying less than $1000 a year.

This, of course, will make it easier for Obama to win a second term promising even more handouts. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “Those who rob Peter to pay Paul can always count on Paul’s support.”

Meanwhile, Obama’s payroll, income and capital gains tax rate hikes will discourage all citizens from working harder, starting businesses, hiring employees and doing all the other things that not only spur economic growth and increase tax revenues but also enable one of the most beloved traits of the American economy: upward income mobility.

During the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover raised taxes and Franklin D. Roosevelt created a slew of entitlement programs.

The result was a bipartisan knockout punch to the economy that turned a severe recession into the worst depression in American history. Obama now proposes to do all of these things once again and is bribing half of the nation to go along with it.

The government-bloating political incentives this scheme creates will turn the United States into a Robin Hood kleptocracy and our severe recession into a crippling depression.

That’s change we don’t need and shouldn’t believe in.

Reach columnist Russ Wung at opinion@dailyuw.com.