This is one of those times. Herewith is the article from the above link in its entirety.
"Riffing off of the fact that 47% of Americans aren't expected to pay federal income tax for 2009, and the fact that the highest 40% earners pay 86% of total federal taxes, we have a small suggestion.
How about we just end the ruse.
Most Americans either don't pay any federal tax or barely support the federal government. Yet as our latest 20 Tax Facts To Blow Your Mind show, these Americans are wasting massive amounts of their own time, and others' time, filing taxes just to pay a relative drop in the bucket. Plus they feel entitled to using money they probably didn't contribute, because they feel as if it's 'their tax dollars'.
So let's just exempt the bottom 60% from paying federal taxes. It might actually be in the interest of the top 40% earners.
That's because the charade will be over. It will be very clear who pays the bills for the federal government and then instead of an F.U. for paying the country's bills, people who earn substantial sums through their own skill and efforts and thus pay large amounts of taxes might get a small thank you. It would then be far more difficult, politically, to expand wasteful entitlement programs because it would just be glaringly obvious who is paying and who is simply receiving. It's not that all entitlement programs are necessarily bad, we believe in some form of support for the less fortunate, but at the very least there would be far more emphasis on entitlement spending for the very needy only, if it were so clear that most Americans aren't even funding the federal government.
Finally, given all the work that goes into tracking 60% of Americans that provide just 14% of the tax revenue, one wonders if the economy as a whole might actually come out with a net benefit due to lower paperwork and tracking costs. The government could surely slash its 100,000+ army of IRS employees as a start, and Americans wouldn't have to hire one million accountants. Sounds like a win-win for all. Except bureaucrats and accountants."
End of Brilliant Idea article.
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This is one of those things that actually COULD happen.