The United States has made some fairly egregious, structural and fundamental errors over the past two-plus centuries. As any mass of humanity is prone to do.
Our nation was once SO much better governed than it is now. In this regard, our errors have been to time and again hand over more and more of our freedom to ever-expanding governments at all levels. Governments which are, of course, more than happy to take all of it.
This has created an ever-more-antagonistic relationship between the governing and the governed. The more governments govern – the more annoyed becomes the governed. What should be a symbiotic relationship – becomes an adversarial one.
Let’s talk federal taxes. Because almost nothing is more annoying than how much The Feds steal from us. It’s hard to now imagine, but when our nation began the government raised coin in entirely different ways. And they were MUCH better ways.
One of the HUGEST errors We the People have committed? Was in 1913, when we ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. Born was the income tax. Dead was the proper way to fund the federal government.
From the nation’s founding, tariffs on imports were the way The Feds raised coin. Prior to the Civil War, close to 90% of The Feds’ money came from tariffs. And it should have remained always thus.
Citizenship should have its privileges. The people’s government should afford its people as many preferences as possible. Crucial amongst them should be not taxing the daylight out of us.
We were founded as a commercial republic. The Founders’ intent was to build a big, beautiful domestic economy – as free from government taxes and impediments as possible.
Hence clever little things like the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. Which before it too became warped, bastardized and ever-expanded? Mostly prevented states from taxing each other as goods and services moved throughout the country. It was yet another less domestic government intention – from a less domestic government document.
We would instead impose tariffs upon other countries to gain access to our big, beautiful domestic economy. A cover charge to get into the planet’s coolest club. And it should have remained always thus.
The domestic income tax is idiotic. And antithetical to the Founders’ vision. Our turning our taxation inward was a crucial beginning of the Globalists’ long march out of our country.
I moved to Belize in no small part because the income tax rate here is 1.75%. And I’m just one guy. Imagine the tax deals giant multinational corporations can cut with the many other countries desperate to steal a taste of our once big, beautiful domestic economy. Which, in part with our new, stupid tax policies, we had begun offloading.
A century-plus later? We are now a Globalist-eviscerated nightmare mess. We have strip-mined our big, beautiful domestic economy. We have exported tens of millions of jobs. And tens of trillions of dollars of wealth. We turned large swaths of our country into a Rust Belt. We have for many decades flatlined wages. It has been 100+ years of Ross Perot’s “giant, sucking sound.”
It’s been hilarious watching the US-wrecking Globalists freak the heck out at President Donald Trump’s merest mention of tariffs. Because they have built their empires by outsourcing from and destroying the US. Becoming obscenely rich by buying in Third World currencies – and selling in US dollars.
Well, when President Trump first ran in 2015 on tariffs? I suggested he on Day One 2017 file a repeal of the 16th Amendment right along imposing them. To begin to right the tax ship of state. Because the first way we taxed? Was the absolute best way to tax. Tax them – not US.
Which brings US to another way the we can begin reverting to the Founders’ vision. Selling a bunch of stuff the government owns – and shouldn’t.
The federal government is a $7+-trillion-per-annum obscenely overreaching disaster. President Trump ran promising to truncate all of it. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was born of that intent. With which Elon Musk appears to be having a ball. One titanic stockpile of government stupidity he’s identified? Government buildings. Get this:
“Government estimates suggest there may be 77,000 empty or underutilized buildings across the country. Taxpayers own them, and even vacant, they’re expensive.”
And that was in 2014. I would bet all the money in my pockets that it’s even worse now. Which would appear to be a good bet. This is from 2023:
“‘The federal government owns over 460 million square feet of office space that costs billions annually to operate and maintain….’”
Call a bunch of realtors – and start listing it.
May I humbly suggest some other things the government should divest from its obscene portfolio?
Land: “The federal government owns and manages more than a quarter of the roughly 2 billion acres of land in the US.”
Ummm…why? The Feds owning ONE-FOURTH OF THE COUNTRY certainly doesn’t scream “limited government Constitutional republic.” Call a bunch of realtors – and start listing it.
Then there’s what we call spectrum. The airwaves we use for everything wireless. From cell phones to car key fobs – and everything else all around. Spectrum is a finite resource. And guess who owns most of America’s?:
“The federal government sits on nearly 60 percent of all useful spectrum for wireless internet networks. Unfortunately, government agencies have a penchant for hoarding spectrum unless Congress tells them to release it. Don’t count on them to help us out.”
The Feds own 25% of the land. They own 60% of the spectrum.
This too sounds like a job for DOGE – and the boss President Trump. Only, most unfortunately, we need Congress to help too:
“(T)he Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) spectrum auction authority expired in 2023….”
Congress is supposed to have reauthorized the FCC’s spectrum auction authority. So here’s a thought, Congress: Reauthorize the FCC’s spectrum auction authority.
To allow the FCC to pretend to be realtors. And start listing a whole lot of the spectrum government owns – but shouldn’t.