What big ideas can help America solve its most pressing problems? In an ongoing project, Yahoo News is soliciting creative, outside-the-box and possibly controversial (but still credible) solutions. Here's one about government and culture.
Interested in submitting your big idea? Learn more.
COMMENTARY | To pay for federal spending and our deficit, I propose we add another line to every 1040 form, a line for donations to the U.S. Treasury.
I would not mind donating to my own government, and I am sure many Americans would also consider doing it if it were easier to do. Why should we have an adversarial relationship with our taxes, with everyone trying to "cheat the government"?
If we took a new attitude toward it and made it something we could donate to on our tax form, we just might collect a lot more revenue by April 15 every year. Americans are very generous people, always willing to donate to a good cause, and what better cause could there be than contributing to our government to pay down debt that is hurting us?
While I am not in favor of increasing taxes, I would like to have an easy option every year to donate an additional amount. This might be an easy way to get our government out of debt and might even raise more money than the mandatory taxes every year.