No. of Recommendations: 11
As suggested elsewhere, the objective seems to be to turn the clock back to 1912: when much of Federal revenue came from tariffs, and there was no income tax. If that is the case, we can look forward to tariffs being continually stepped up, until revenue is sufficient to replace the income tax.
Not to overstate the obvious, but there is no way.
In 1912 there were hardly any paved roads, and certainly no Federally funded roads. There was no NASA, no weather satellites, no CIA or FBI. We had a spit of a standing army or navy, and certainly no Air Force (or Space Force). No missiles to build and maintain. There was no regulation of food or drugs, no Federal flood insurance, no funded science research, no disability or Medicaid, no veterans hospitals, no missile defense or nuclear programsj.
There was, of course, no FAA, no FCC, and no assistance for public transit. Headstart didn’t exist, and there were no pollution control programs or rules. Heck, the IRS didn’t exist.
You want to fund it all with sales taxes (*I’m sorry: tariffs). You’re gonna see humongous increases in the price of everything except wheat and soybeans. We’re really good at wheat and soybeans. Also social media, which is already free, but maybe there’s a way to make a dime off of it? (Sure, just threaten to close it down because of “[insert faux] EMERGENCY!” But allow it to continue if they just give you 20% of the vig.
Yeah, there are lots of movies about this, mostly with fat guys in fedora hats.
