Your post: “Here’s a better idea: The FIFTY BILL”
So, a future Obama type would send the states a bill that was $1 Trillion more than the year before and the states would dutifully figure out a way to pay their “fair share” of what Washington says they “need”? Don’t see how that would be workable.
There would have to be some serious restrictions on what the federal government could spend money on (requiring a constitutional amendment to reinforce the original intent behind the enumerated powers and 10th Amendment) and something like a balanced budget amendment to prohibit deficit spending to boot.
Actually, it seems to me that it might be a bit more doable to do it in reverse..the states would send the President/Congress a statement of income (the amount of money they are willing to send in for operation of government) and the government would be forced to figure out a way to live on that for the year.
A constitutional amendment could fix the total bill at a percentage of the GDP of the preceding year.
And...Senators would be more accountable to local and state pressure to keep spending low.
But,....I like your idea of the states sending the federal government a statement of what they are willing to pay. I will think about it.
In either case the entire IRS system ( every employee) would be completely abolished, The Fair Tax still keeps some of that in place.