Today I was reminded by a discussion of Tennessee's fiscal troubles on the Rush Limbaugh program of a point relevant to my post a few days ago about Alaska's irrational fiscal structure.
Ya see, turns out the federal income tax rolls have been trimmed in such a way as to make the proportion of taxpaying Americans smaller even as revenues skyrocket (the present economic stutter-step notwithstanding). Gradually, if this trend continues, we're going to see a nationwide disconnect between the taxpayers and the electorate.
It leads me to speculate on whether it might be salutary -- in the extremely unlikely event that it could be brought about (constitutional amendments out the effin wazoo) -- to require anyone showing up to vote to present a receipt bearing that person's name for some substantial tax payment during the past year. How high the standard is set would depend on how much we want to stipulate the payment of taxes as a condition of full citizenship. A few cents' sales tax could be enough if things haven't gotten too far out of whack. At the other extreme there could be required payment of the federal income tax plus two state or local taxes. This would require tax-sparse jurisdictions to enact more different taxes just to broaden people's opportunity to qualify to vote.
More people paying taxes means more people caring about the tax burden. Fewer non-taxpaying voters means political constituencies for drunken-sailor spending programs would shrivel in a hurry.
It could never happen. Dang it.
