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Seeing Where the Money Went
Rethinking Taxes: Proud to Pay
At first, the receipt would reflect a messy, chaotic government, with redundancies and inefficiencies clear to any taxpayer. Eventually, however, the receipt might act as a natural feedback mechanism, changing the reality it is charged to reflect. There’s wisdom in the old saying: Sunlight really is the best disinfectant. Some of the worst excesses of government spending would be curtailed, one imagines, in response to citizen anger about what was visible on the receipt. Likewise, government programs currently underfunded but widely liked might receive additional boosts of funding. NASA, for instance, regularly receives the type of broad public support rare for federal agencies in Gallup polling, but is not as well funded as one might expect. And the erosion of myths about what government does would also have serious implications, adding substance to debates where now little can be found.
Over the long run, a receipt would have the effect of more closely aligning citizen preferences and policy outcomes, a fundamental goal of any democracy. On occasion, progressives and conservatives alike might not find these outcomes to their liking. Yet no matter your ideology, it would be hard not to cheer the increases in public knowledge and accountability that a receipt would leave in its wake.
The political philosopher John Rawls once wrote: “The public political culture is bound to contain different fundamental ideas that can be developed in different ways. An orderly contest between them over time is a reliable way to find which one, if any, is most reasonable.” It almost goes without saying that we’re a long way from living up to that standard. Politics today are chaotic and deeply unreasonable; some of the loudest participants are the worst offenders. A receipt won’t reveal any final answers to great debates—it will be less a blueprint and more a point of departure. However, were it to be enacted, we hope that the ideal of reasoned debate it seeks to elevate could inspire the rest of our politics.
Great idea! Kudos! Kudos! Bravo!
But why not give it a try in the private-sector and or non-profit sector with a broad-based political coalition first. Then perhaps the public-sector (e.g. IRS, OMB, CBO) will get around to picking up the baton shortly thereafter, at which point they can reach some households for which the private-sector has less capability.
Back in the mid-90s when I was working on my first edition of Penny Mills Checkbook, I remember being concerned that all of my budget research efforts would be nullified with the release of OMBs (Office of Management and Budget) Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget.
A couple of minutes after flipping it open my concerns were allayed, this particular edition was nauseatingly politicized as to the level of welfare spending. Later editions were much better, quite good in fact up until their publication was discontinued during the Bush years. But I doubt that one-tenth of one percent of the American public were even aware as to the existence of the Citizen's Guide. So the IRS approach you suggest is a far superior public-sector approach.
But again, I encourage your organization to reach across the political spectrum in order to produce such a product, instead of waiting on the federal government to do so.
You know we can do better than Congress or any federal agency. Keep up the good work!
Jeff Harper
Author- Penny Mills Checkbook
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Ethan Porter and David Kendall are, respectively, a contributing editor at Democracy: A Journal of Ideas and senior fellow for health and fiscal policy at Third Way.
Events
Liu, Hanauer Discuss “More What, Less How” Government at NDN Event
On March 9, NDN hosted a panel discussion featuring Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, making their case for a new theory of progressive government, as first published in our Winter 2011 Issue [“The “More What, Less How” Government,” Issue #19].
News
Washington Post Op-Ed: Porter and Kendall on Taxpayer Receipt
In the Spring Issue of Democracy, out in newsstands this week, Ethan Porter, contributing editor at Democracy, and David Kendall of Third Way have an essay promoting the idea of a taxpayer receipt. In the March 13 edition of The Washington Post, Porter and Kendall preview the idea in an op-ed.
News
NY Times Magazine Discusses “The Science Wars Redux”
Writing in The New York Times Magazine, Judith Warner discusses Michael Berube’s “The Science Wars Redux” in an article on the conservative war against the scientific establishment.
News
Shadi Hamid on “The Cairo Conundrum”
In our Winter 2010 issue, Shadi Hamid wrote of the dilemma confronting the U.S. in Egypt. His closing lines: “Egyptians, along with Arabs and Muslims throughout the region, have demonstrated their desire for substantive political change. It is time we did the same.”
