Given that there is such confusion about the manifold taxes we pay, how we pay them, who pays them, and what they buy us, I have devised a novel approach. I am not going to go into the whole program--clear in my mind--which, although it is considerably less cumbersome than what we have now, is still several thousand words. Here are the high points:

"The people"--John Beohner's "people," Bernie Sanders' "people," the Koch Bros' "people," Keith Olbermann's "People," and Glenn Beck's, um "people," etc--decide how the taxes are spent. Yes, really. When we pay our taxes, which many (but not all) of us do, we are given a checklist for how to allocate our tax bill. (More detail is needed about this for many reasons, since some poor people pay no taxes, and many rich people, and "corporation 'people'" pay none at all.)

People would indicate how much of their tax dollars would go to:

Prisons
Health care
Unemployment
Regulation of, well, everything--building codes, food and medicine safety, professional regulation--teachers, doctors, lawyers, interstate commerce, broadband
Infrastructure--roads, bridges, airports, trains, the USPS, protection of the water supply, etc.
Military--service personnel, their health care, their education, planes, boats, tanks, guns, bullets, "intelligence,"
State Department--including maintaining embassies and disbursement of foreign aid
Police
Fire Departments
Hospitals
EMT personnel
Medicaire
Medicaid
Social Security
Environmental Protection, including protection of endangered species and cleaning up after "corporate people who evaded jailtime"
Dept of Agriculture
Salaries for government officials, including Congress, their staffs, the Supreme Court, including their staffs, and the President, including his/her staff
And more that I cannot think of at this moment without my next cup of jolt juice.

There are many advantages for this program. One is that, well, if you DO pay taxes, then you get to decide. Of course, I envision a basement income level--perhaps $40K--for which people would be given a ballot/checklist for X amount of expenditures. And also of course, this structure would necessarily be progressive, so that those making more money could not be grossly disproportionately represented. And of course, of course, those making gazillions and CHOOSE to NOT pay taxes, would have NO say in the process.

As I said, there are many details that I have left out. But this would allow us to get the government that we "the people:" truly want. You want all your dollars going to tanks? My money goes to education, health care, and prison reform. Oh, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so they may ever be free of the necessity of beg-a-thons. We would see EXACTLY what "the people" want government to do and what they are willing to allocate to it.

And this would force the citizenry to actually LEARN about what it is that government does and the implications and ramifications, and become better informed, and even improve their embarrassing arithmetic skills.

OK, Catters. Have at it...

Saul