Re-Defining Government For The American Mind.

When you pay your taxes, do you get told what you get for that money? The answer is no. People really don't know. So when you hear someone else talk about waste spending, it's pretty believable since you don't know what you got. It's pretty easy to get duped.

Back in 2009, when the Stimulus projects were going up, there was a novel idea. Put big signs up that designate this is a government project from the Stimulus. To some small extent, it did work, but people didn't really get why they were doing some of the projects. No one explained the value of some of the projects, so it allowed the Republicans to make some of the more obscure ones sound ridiculous, and further the notion that government spending was waste. The signs were a very good idea, the rest of the PR front was not carried out well.

People in this country feel more disconnected from what their government does than they should, and the government should try to change that. They should do this in the income tax process every year. When you file every year, you should receive a break out of how much of your taxes went to each department of the federal government, and what projects were done in your community, as well as what benefits you received, for that year. Not enough people actually know that the new highway in their county was paid for with federal dollars, dollars they paid in. Not enough people realize how much the federal government subsidized their kid's student loan. Even less direct things, like your lower than the rest of the world gas prices, are subsidized by the government.

If you gave money to any other place, you would expect to see directly what you got back for it. You get lots back for your tax dollars. By showing it, you begin to break the idea that government gives you nothing for your money. It's time for the government to "toot it's own horn" for a bit. Start breaking down Reagan's nonsense about government being the enemy.