Posted On: October 3, 2007, 3:56 pm CDT

Posted By: umpiire

One of the previously posted comments asked for a solution, rather than to continue the venting, so I'll try to start something, in hopes that others can build it further along.

We all, indeed, pay for these systems. What is desperately missing is oversight by the true provider -- the actual taxpayer, for the line item expense. That CAN be repaired, massively changing these issues.

Step 1) Create welfare clearance boards at the LOCAL level. Their job is to discover who in the local community needs assistance, and what kind of assistance. They must use a standardized national template that describes the need, reason, and duration.

Step 2) Create 100% tax credits for citizens to use at such clearance boards. The taxpayer may choose, at THEIR OWN DISCRETION, whether they earmark that money for health care, food stamps, education, or any other category of assistence available. Allow that taxpayer to have up to 20% of their tax due used in this manner (if I owe $10,000 in taxes, then I could spend $2,000 directly to this specific place and purpose, and then only send 8,000 with my tax return).

Step 3) Each contributing taxpayer to a local board will optionally check the box to be willing to serve on the audit committee. Annually, an audit committee will review the local board, to ensure that they have accurately provided their information on beneficiaries of those local grants. If a single mom is using her grant to go back to school, then she'd better be a single mom, and she'd better have gone back to school! The opinions of need would not be audited -- just the accuracy of the participants and the information provided.

What many taxpayers hate is that their taxes are used in ways that horrify them. Other taxpayers could care less (if they were passionate about it, we wouldn't be in this mess). Allow such a 100% credit program, and then see how many individual taxpayers would make the effort to direct where their tax money was actually spent. Even if only 10% of taxpayers participated in such a program, you'd have 10% of citizens very happy with where their tax money was spent.

The big deal is -- you'd have the people spending the money watching the accounting of the money! Money gets spent very differently by an individual than it does by a committee... or an appointed representative... and by a politician or bureaucrat is the worst! Put the power in the people. Government is to do for us only what we CANNOT do for ourselves. Creating the organizational structure and vehicle by government is fine. But then having the citizens deciding how much is spent where... that's REALLY managing your financial resources!

Some will say that the above is what charities do. Used to, perhaps... but not any more. There is not a 100% tax credit for charity contributions, and too many "not exactly a charity" entities out there. Some are huge machines, where executives bleed off donations in fund raising events, big incomes, etc. What was done during our parent's generation by charities and churches is NOT what is done by them now... done too much personal research there.

I'm simply wanting to pay the same amount of taxes, but get to decide myself where I allocate part of that money. You don't get to tell me what I should allocate it for... which allows me to "vote by dollar" which of the items get funded by my money. You do the same... and there will be a nice spread of where the money goes.

Hopefully, each local community will know where the money will be spent best. And the more citizens that adopt the option, the more we'll be spending our money on our wants.

Hopefully, rather than tear down the idea above, others can suggest improvements where I've not considered pitfalls.