The cure to government waste and abuse is simpler than you think...
If we really want fiscal responsibility… if we really want to end the waste… then we need a structural change to our taxation, and I propose a very simple solution...
Opinion:
By Daniel Turner
I apologize. I am slow to finish this series… but it is not from a lack of interest. Besides a full-time job, I have a full-time farm, and summer is the busiest time.
So let me continue with the last few big ideas. You can find the first six here. The next four are ideas which will bring structural change to the nation forever.
Seven: The Quarterly Income Tax Payment
Convenience has done a great disservice to the nation of taxpayers. We have become accustomed to our payroll automatically deducting from our paychecks the government’s cut, and we’ve become accustomed to this absurd, abusive, amoral amount disappearing into the “pay your fair share” black hole.
If we really want fiscal responsibility… if we really want government accountability and to end the waste… then we need a structural change to our taxation, and I propose a very simple solution: quarterly tax payments.
Let’s use an example. An employee in Virginia who makes $75,000 a year would owe the federal government roughly $18,500 in taxes. If he’s paid twice a month, then every paycheck sees an automatic $770 deduction.
I propose no deduction. Full paycheck with the full amount BUT at the end of the quarter, said employee would be obligated to send in a check for the same amount. In this case, every quarter, our employee must write the IRS a check for $4,620.
Nothing- absolutely nothing- will make someone a fiscal hawk faster than having to write so large a check so frequently. That check-writing employee would scrutinize every Congressional appropriation and every foreign aid package. News stories like “the Federal Reserve’s HQ renovation is running $700 million over budget” hit a lot harder when you are writing a $4,620 check every three months. Your Congressman’s bill to perpetually fund the war in {insert country here} is harder embrace at a Town Hall, a Town Hall, which, you are now way more likely to attend because that Congressman expects you to write another $4,620 check in three more months.
I’m not even proposing lowering taxes or raising them, but such a structural change will bring a level of citizen involvement Congress does not want. Sure, the current deduction model is convenient… but convenient for whom?
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Eight: No More Government Cheese
Once the citizen realizes he is the government’s ATM, he will call for an end of government philanthropy understanding that there is no such thing as government philanthropy, but only confiscation of one’s property redistributed as government deems fit.
“This is a program which provides shoes for the homeless”. No. “Under this program pregnant migrants can receive…”. No. “This program offers jobs training for…”. No.
Even intentionality will not save these programs. Sorry, Kant.
America is a kind and generous nation, but right now, as our $37 trillion debt can attest, we have far too many people who live off the government. These programs exist forever, costing more, fixing nothing, but creating government dependency for generations.
A woman was finally cut off from food stamps after multiple TikTok (TikTok is poison, FYI) videos bragging about her $3000 shopping bills at your expense. “Food is way expensive. Who wants to keep spending money on food? It's too much,” she said.
That woman has been led to believe she has a right to your taxes. And it is time we corrected that hierarchy forever.
“What about the children?” No. “What about her health and wellbeing?” No. The answer is, it must be, it has to be: “No”.
Private philanthropy can cover needs. If that is not enough, people will do what you and I do which is find a way to make money and contribute to society.
“I thought you were a Christian! I thought you were pro-life!” Don’t let them use your values against you. Don’t let them think you are obligated to contribute more because they refuse to take less. No. The answer is, it must be, no. As heartless as it sounds, and at the risk of being accused of being the most awful man in Congress, every one of the government cheese programs must be closed.
Nine: The Senior Citizen Capital Gains Tax Exemption
The One Big Beautiful Bill (now law) has a change in the tax code exempting social security from taxation, correcting one of the few mistakes of the Reagan Presidency. Until 1984, social security was tax free, but the Greenspan Commission worried the program was financially insecure, and taxation was easier than reform. And yes, Social Security must be reformed.
But one step at time: No capital gains taxes after your 70th birthday.
Seniors are living longer than ever and that means they will need money longer. The most gracious thing we can do for our seniors is allow them to keep all their wealth.
Seniors who bought stock in the 80’s get to keep 100% of their profits. Seniors who bought their home during the Vietnam War for $34,000 and it’s now worth $850,000, should be able to sell and downsize, keeping every penny of the capital gains.
That is more money for assisted living or for healthcare, home aids, bathroom remodels to add grab bars and high toilets, stair lifts… let seniors keep their money for a dignified end of life, and most importantly, so they don’t need the government’s support.
Now, once this is implemented with seniors… we will be able to implement it universally. Because the true capital gains tax rate should, of course, be 0%.
The value of every good which appreciates should remain with the owner of that good. The government has no right to confiscate a percentage. It is wrong. It is deeply immoral. But I also know we’re not going to get this to pass for everyone… so let’s start with the seniors who do need it more urgently, and once enough people see Grandma sell her home with zero capital gains tax, they will want capital gains tax eliminated for themselves, too. That will be a great day for freedom and property.
Ten: The Itemized Tax Returns
“I need an itemized receipt” is in my lexicon. Probably yours, too. Accountants and CFOs and everyone in between who looks at your books wants to know what was actually purchased.
If your contractor handed you a $100,000 bill, you’d ask for an itemized receipt. “Wait, this line here, what is a tile storage fee, and why is it $1200?”
If we are going to clean up the government’s books, make our citizens fiscally savvy and responsible, the government owes us an itemized receipt. After all, the IRS asks one of us, does it not?
What percentage of your taxes goes to defense? What percentage goes to Medicaid? Ukraine? Debt servicing? Government salaries?
This is not even hard to do. Our previous example of the Virginia resident who earns $75,000 a year and pays $18,500 in taxes can easily get an itemized receipt. How shocked will he be when he sees that he is still in the red $40,000 because government overspent yet again.
Department of Commerce: 1.5%. “What is the Department of Commerce?” our friend may ask his Senator at a Town Hall.
“Senator, based on my itemized tax receipt, 2.75% of my tax liability went towards ‘miscellaneous’. Can you explain that to me?”
“Senator, 25% of my tax liability went towards Medicaid. You voted to allow illegal aliens to receive Medicaid…” imagine the rest of that conversation. Woof… good luck, Senator. I’ll tell you this, my yahoo Senators from Virginia would not be able to answer these questions if they ever held a Town Hall.
And what we are doing with these proposal, these last four which are more economic, the previous ones which are cultural, is we are creating an educated, involved electorate. We are creating a nation of responsible and active citizens, not passive victims observing the government and the culture from their sofa, developing an unhealthy detachment from both.
I am not an anarchist. Government does have a role, and we can shape it so the role it plays makes us a smarter, savvier, nation. Decades of deliberate reshaping of government have created distance. These proposals throw Americans in the mix of these battles for their dollars and their souls, their liberty, property, and prosperity.
Ten ideas. If I go to Congress someday… I will propose them all. Look at that, a campaign platform and I’m not even a candidate. And so much better a campaign platform than the hollow rhetoric “put hope over fear, build bridges not walls”. Our current political candidates sound like bad poets more than serious statesmen.
And I’ll keep talking about other issues: taxes, religion, culture, race, history… I’ll bring up the taboo and the controversial. Heck, next time I testify before Congress I want some lame Congressman to hold up one of my articles on a posterboard and excoriate me for having the guts to address the things he’s too cowardly to fix. (That’s a nod to Rep. Garcia who did just that to me a few weeks ago…)
We can fix everything. But it has to start with an idea, and sometimes a brawl. Until then…
We keep fighting. Honor and courage.
Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF
Restfully: We don’t have a taxation problem, we have a spending problem.
No budget since 1996 or 97, only CRs.
Balanced Budget Amendment cast in stone.
Amendment requiring “clean” bills, no pork riders.
Line item veto. .
Term limits
Congress is as addicted to spending as a junkie is to heroin. They consider it as the divine right of kings was once considered.
Why? Lifers stay for life and grow wealthy gorging at the public trough.
In the end, we have allowed it. Unengaged and uninformed voters are to blame.
A capital gain is not even a gain if the purchasing power of the US Dollar is not the same as when the asset was purchased! This is another INFLATION TAX by another name!