My idea(once again): Eliminate the income tax. Start off by lowering it to 1%. Then go to work on eliminating the amendment that made it ok. Replace it with a consumption(Fair) tax. Everyone gets to see their whole paycheck on payday minus the 1%.
It would be populist. The Fair Tax could be lowered with a corresponding elimination of non-essential departments. That’s most of them.
I thnk this is a great idea. It also would allow much more money to be dedicated to our military. A very uncpomplicated transparent trace of where our mooney goes.
Actually, USG spending on its “departments” is a very small part of the spending problem. The true spending problem is one no one wants to talk about or acknowledge it’s “entitlements” - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. It requires us all to hold up a mirror and say, “We are the spending problem!”.
We stupidly have believed politicians who have continuously promised us “Heaven on Earth” with minty fresh breath if we just take one more small dip into the taxpayer pocket. We have believed this since FDR days and a majority continue to do so. This “misdirection” into concentrating on the “gnat” - government department spending and ignore the “camel” entitlements will guarantee we will never solve the problem!