i still say we need to 1 drop every tax in the country. with the excpetions of fuel, social security, and medicaid. these are and should go to that which they are collected period.


replace the rest of the taxes with 2 sales tax. 1 state 18%. 2 national 18%.


and if you don't believe the poor aren't paying at least 36% worth of taxes right now, you must be gene.

OOooh, I'd love to see something like what you propose here Draginol.  I really would.  Chances it would ever come to pass are nil, but I'd love to see it.

Like I spoke in the earlier article, take away my obligation to pay for *others* via medicare, medicaid, and Social (in)Security and I might have enough extra money to pay more for things like defense, roads and transportation and more that would benefit far more in this country than the few that collect benefits from the other programs.  Who knows, you might even leave me enough money to donate to charities that provide much better benefits and return much better for the investment that people make in them than do the likes of our Department of Education, or Welfare, or Aid for Families with Dependent Children (which perversely encourages people to have more children so they collect more benefits....) and more.

That is, if people really support having the government provide health care insurance for other people's children, then they shouldn't mind paying correspondingly more in taxes to pay for it.

I would love this but as it turns out every time the government does it, it seems that the money eventually ends somewhere else. Am I correct in this statement?

School tax of which is supposed to pay for anything school related partly goes where? Gas tax is supposed to fix the roads but ends up where?

Medicade and Medicare are supposed to be vehicles to make sure the spread of disease does not happen. It is supposed to make sure that children can be healthy and the workforce can actually work. It is supposed to help those who are down and out for a little while until they can get back on their feet That is what it is supposed to be used for.

is for the retired




is for those who are temp. or perm. handicapped and can't get medicare.

who knows but it wasn't used to fix a certain bridge before it fell down.


ok everyone


london bridge is falling down.

Do you mean a kind of opt-in extra service (such as opt-in for 'universal' healthcare)? Because I think you're onto something there.

The big socialist push for universal healthcare, education and the rest is based on greater trust for the government than the private sector on big-ticket items. It would give taxpayers an opportunity to use government systems if they wanted to or use the private sector.

I'd vote for it.

Of course if you mean people just get to choose whether or not they contribute anything to the bonus programs then I don't think it's going to work. There is probably a way of swinging things around though - if tax payments were written into a computer program that encouraged putting money into the state (eg screens flashed up suggesting potential other 'taxes' you could opt-in for based on what you have already chosen, it might be able to make use of people's potential generosity.

I'd love to see a study done on this sort of thing. Can it work in real life? Would it?

Anyone who's dealt with Medicare can't possibly have "greater trust for the government." We get the lowest return on our dollar from government, across the board. The government makes it very difficult to learn that, by design.

No opt-in. Everyone pays.

Specifically:

The amount we are taxed is dependent on what program that the tax is going to.

For government services that we all use, the existing progressive tax system remains in place.

But for programs that are providing cash to individuals based on "need" (i.e. anything that is "means tested"), those programs would be paid for by taxing citizens equally.

This way, citizens will see the connection between their beliefs and their taxes.

The amount we are taxed is dependent on what program that the tax is going to.

I think your idea is excellent.  I also know it will never work.  Many times a tax is created to address a need, only to see that tax eventually rolled into the general fund and never go away even when the need is long gone (Specifically here - the tax for the Jamestown Celebration - on the federal level -t he tax for providing Internet access to schools and libraries, the Spanish War, etc.)

It would start out that way, but over a short time, would become just another tax - to be demigogued as falling too heavily on the poor and thus they would be exempted again.