danielisthor said:
We'll never get them to stop collecting taxes. Our best bet is to get them to stop their spending. what is best for the GENERAL WELFARE of the United States. I'm willing to bet that a nice chunk of change of our taxes is for utter bs and just spent to justify keeping taxes at a status quo.
It is all spent, hence why we have deficits. People get the wrong impression that this Government is some shadowy, central figure that screws us over. Actually if we had such a Government we'd actually get a whole lot more done. I mean look at Nazi Germany, they certainly accomplished what they set out to do. But here we just have a plurality of interest groups and [over 47,000] subgovernments and organizations.
What we do is called line item budgeting, which takes itself about a year to do (Zero based is more efficient, but..well..takes forever, Carter tried it and it failed miserably...
could've been great). But basically if your an interest group/subgovernment/organization and you want money you essentially petition a couple Senators/Legislatures (state or Federal) to get on a budget, usually with some sort of bargaining chip. And once your on the line item you are essentially there for life because no one wants to give up their money.
Case in point, helium production for dirigibles out in New Mexico costs a couple million a year for the federal government. Now, we don't use dirigibles. But New Mexico has a lot of workers employed doing just this, so it's good for their state economy and good for a voting block of the community who benefits from the employment. So it doesn't go anywhere. The federal Government is not trying to screw us over at all, in fact they are trying not to screw over New Mexico [workers].
It's essentially an inherent problem with representitive democracy. Everyone wants to get re-elected, so if you hurt any constituency it in turn hurts you. And now that voting rights are extended and the country is spread out and diverse there are a lot more people wanting a piece of the government cheese. Some rightfully need the money (like defense funds, welfare, urban programs, law enforcement) and some don't (like helium production, corporate welfare, and other expenses...you'd have to snoop around to figure out what and where).
Zero-based, as opposed to line item, would instead take everyone's money off the table at the end of a year and then re-evaluate each program's worth and re-alot funds. This unfortunately takes forever.
So right now people are definitely looking for new paradigms in spending tax dollars, because you're right a lot is wasted because people in this country have a natural selfishness when it comes to money. Capitalism at work. Unfortunately we have that conflict.
