Proposed Federal Tax Reform
The Issue
COMMON SENSE TAX REFORM – We have the money. Pay off the debt.
A Proposal for Congress
The crisis:
The national debt will reach $40 trillion this year. $20 trillion is just accumulated interest. Interest in 2024 on debt is $1.2 trillion which represents 20% of the revenue collected for the year. That is money that builds nothing, defends nothing, heals no one.
According to the CBO, debt will exceed $100 trillion by 2050 with annual interest reaching $4 to 5 trillion. That’s equal to all the revenue we collect today.
The solution: A nine-point tax reform plan generating $13 trillion annually—enough to eliminate the deficit in Year One, pay off the debt within a decade and create a surplus for future investments with contingencies.
The choice: Act now with deliberate reform or wait until:
· Bond markets impose austerity on harsher terms.
· Employment erodes away due to AI
· An economic recession
· A market crash
The Stakes
This is not about numbers on a spreadsheet. It is about what America stands to lose.
A nation that cannot manage its debt cannot sustain its military. Cannot maintain the dollar's reserve currency status. Cannot lead or choose its future.
Any delay compounds the interest on the debt—and narrows the options.
How the Revenue Base Eroded
Over five decades, the tax base has narrowed while commitments have grown:
Top marginal rates declined from 91% to 37%
The wealthiest 25 Americans pay an effective rate of 3.4% (ProPublica, 2021)
Estate exclusions rose from $60,000 to $15 million
Corporate effective rates average 8.9% after deductions (GAO, 2023)
IRS underfunding allows an estimated $600 billion tax gap annually (Treasury Department, 2021)
Tax Breaks (Expenditures) in 2025 alone cost $2.2 trillion (Joint Committee on Taxation) This alone is larger than our deficit.
The cumulative effect: $30–40 trillion in forgone revenue over this period, plus $20 trillion in resulting interest.
This is not an argument about fairness. It is arithmetic. Today, 84% of the taxes collected are from salaried workers, not the wealthy who gain wealth through means that are not taxed. Artificial Intelligent may replace a large number of workers and baby boomers are retiring in record numbers. Less worker means less tax collected. More debt means further downgrading of the bond market. Interest rates rise as bond rating decrease. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid costs are all growing faster than the economy. This too accelerates our growing debt and further weakens our finances.
Trump’s OBBB undermined the integrity of the tax system. Trump’s first‑term 2017 tax cuts were only able to pass because they included an expiration date — a requirement triggered by their unsustainable cost. Yet the OBBB completely ignored the long‑term fiscal impact of those earlier cuts, claiming they didn’t need to be considered because they were “already on the books.” That reasoning is flawed.
The justification for the new round of tax cuts rested on the assumption that new tariffs would cover the cost. But the courts have since ruled those tariffs illegal. From my perspective, that ruling raises a serious question: if the core revenue source used to justify the OBBB has been struck down then the bill itself is invalid
We do not have the right to steal to future of the next generation with debt.
The Proposal
Three objectives:
Eliminate the deficit in Year One
Pay off the national debt within ten years
Establish a surplus for investment and contingency
U.S. household net worth is approximately $175 trillion according to Federal Reserve data. This plan does not punish success. It asks that prosperity contribute proportionally to the nation that enabled it.
The Nine-Point Plan -- We have the Money, Pay off the Debt.
1. Restore Progressive Taxation New brackets for income (0–70%), estates (20–70%), and corporations (20–50%). Eliminate expenditures (exceptions, exclusions, deferrals, and loopholes, trusts and life policies). Establish a 90% exit tax on wealth expatriation. Projected revenue: $10.5 trillion
2. End Tax Deferred Retirement. Trillions have accumulated untaxed in sheltered accounts. Allow a ten-year payoff period for existing balances. Projected revenue: $1.2 trillion
3. Reform Social Security and Medicare Funding. Current system of working employees paying for retirees no longer works. Replace payroll taxes with general revenue funding. Guarantee retirees a $30,000 minimum with cost-of-living adjustments, eliminates the need for social programs to supplement income.
4. Re-Establish a Living Wage. Raise the federal minimum to $15 with automatic inflation adjustments. This reduces the $1.5 trillion taxpayers currently spend subsidizing inadequate wages and poor through social programs.
5. Modernize IRS Tax Enforcement. Recover fraudulent loses. Recovered revenue: $500–750 billion
6. Introduce a 5% Value-Added Tax. Other G7 nations levy VAT rates of 10–21%. A modest U.S. rate aligns with international norms. Revenue $300 billion.
7. End Section 1031 Exchanges. Investors now purchase one-third of residential properties using tax-deferred exchanges—driving up prices for families and placing some into social programs. Allow a ten-year payoff for existing deferrals.
8. Increase Taxes on Harmful Products. Tobacco, alcohol, sugar, firearms, and fossil fuels contribute to 1.1 million deaths and $3 trillion in healthcare costs annually. Tax rates should recover these costs and curtail unhealthy habits.
9. Require End-of-Life Directives Americans on Social Security would complete advance directives. Currently, $1.25 trillion is spent in the final year of life—much of it on unwanted interventions. Clear directives, reduce suffering and unnecessary cost.
The Math
The plan needs $13 trillion. The Plan generates $13 trillion.
Deficit eliminated in Year One. Debt retired in ten years. Establishes a surplus for investments and contingencies.
A Word on the Politics
We recognize what this asks of you.
We need your courage.
Voting for tax increases is difficult. It invites attack ads and primary challenges.
But you did not seek this office to preside over manageable decline. You sought it to solve hard problems
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker once observed: "The truly difficult problems are never solved by waiting." The debt is that kind of problem.
The Ask
Review this proposal. Subject it to CBO scoring. Debate the rates, the timelines, the structure.
But do not defer the question itself.
Act while options remain. Act before markets dictate terms. Act because it is your duty—and because history will record who met this moment and who did not.
Respectfully submitted for your consideration.
62
The Issue
COMMON SENSE TAX REFORM – We have the money. Pay off the debt.
A Proposal for Congress
The crisis:
The national debt will reach $40 trillion this year. $20 trillion is just accumulated interest. Interest in 2024 on debt is $1.2 trillion which represents 20% of the revenue collected for the year. That is money that builds nothing, defends nothing, heals no one.
According to the CBO, debt will exceed $100 trillion by 2050 with annual interest reaching $4 to 5 trillion. That’s equal to all the revenue we collect today.
The solution: A nine-point tax reform plan generating $13 trillion annually—enough to eliminate the deficit in Year One, pay off the debt within a decade and create a surplus for future investments with contingencies.
The choice: Act now with deliberate reform or wait until:
· Bond markets impose austerity on harsher terms.
· Employment erodes away due to AI
· An economic recession
· A market crash
The Stakes
This is not about numbers on a spreadsheet. It is about what America stands to lose.
A nation that cannot manage its debt cannot sustain its military. Cannot maintain the dollar's reserve currency status. Cannot lead or choose its future.
Any delay compounds the interest on the debt—and narrows the options.
How the Revenue Base Eroded
Over five decades, the tax base has narrowed while commitments have grown:
Top marginal rates declined from 91% to 37%
The wealthiest 25 Americans pay an effective rate of 3.4% (ProPublica, 2021)
Estate exclusions rose from $60,000 to $15 million
Corporate effective rates average 8.9% after deductions (GAO, 2023)
IRS underfunding allows an estimated $600 billion tax gap annually (Treasury Department, 2021)
Tax Breaks (Expenditures) in 2025 alone cost $2.2 trillion (Joint Committee on Taxation) This alone is larger than our deficit.
The cumulative effect: $30–40 trillion in forgone revenue over this period, plus $20 trillion in resulting interest.
This is not an argument about fairness. It is arithmetic. Today, 84% of the taxes collected are from salaried workers, not the wealthy who gain wealth through means that are not taxed. Artificial Intelligent may replace a large number of workers and baby boomers are retiring in record numbers. Less worker means less tax collected. More debt means further downgrading of the bond market. Interest rates rise as bond rating decrease. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid costs are all growing faster than the economy. This too accelerates our growing debt and further weakens our finances.
Trump’s OBBB undermined the integrity of the tax system. Trump’s first‑term 2017 tax cuts were only able to pass because they included an expiration date — a requirement triggered by their unsustainable cost. Yet the OBBB completely ignored the long‑term fiscal impact of those earlier cuts, claiming they didn’t need to be considered because they were “already on the books.” That reasoning is flawed.
The justification for the new round of tax cuts rested on the assumption that new tariffs would cover the cost. But the courts have since ruled those tariffs illegal. From my perspective, that ruling raises a serious question: if the core revenue source used to justify the OBBB has been struck down then the bill itself is invalid
We do not have the right to steal to future of the next generation with debt.
The Proposal
Three objectives:
Eliminate the deficit in Year One
Pay off the national debt within ten years
Establish a surplus for investment and contingency
U.S. household net worth is approximately $175 trillion according to Federal Reserve data. This plan does not punish success. It asks that prosperity contribute proportionally to the nation that enabled it.
The Nine-Point Plan -- We have the Money, Pay off the Debt.
1. Restore Progressive Taxation New brackets for income (0–70%), estates (20–70%), and corporations (20–50%). Eliminate expenditures (exceptions, exclusions, deferrals, and loopholes, trusts and life policies). Establish a 90% exit tax on wealth expatriation. Projected revenue: $10.5 trillion
2. End Tax Deferred Retirement. Trillions have accumulated untaxed in sheltered accounts. Allow a ten-year payoff period for existing balances. Projected revenue: $1.2 trillion
3. Reform Social Security and Medicare Funding. Current system of working employees paying for retirees no longer works. Replace payroll taxes with general revenue funding. Guarantee retirees a $30,000 minimum with cost-of-living adjustments, eliminates the need for social programs to supplement income.
4. Re-Establish a Living Wage. Raise the federal minimum to $15 with automatic inflation adjustments. This reduces the $1.5 trillion taxpayers currently spend subsidizing inadequate wages and poor through social programs.
5. Modernize IRS Tax Enforcement. Recover fraudulent loses. Recovered revenue: $500–750 billion
6. Introduce a 5% Value-Added Tax. Other G7 nations levy VAT rates of 10–21%. A modest U.S. rate aligns with international norms. Revenue $300 billion.
7. End Section 1031 Exchanges. Investors now purchase one-third of residential properties using tax-deferred exchanges—driving up prices for families and placing some into social programs. Allow a ten-year payoff for existing deferrals.
8. Increase Taxes on Harmful Products. Tobacco, alcohol, sugar, firearms, and fossil fuels contribute to 1.1 million deaths and $3 trillion in healthcare costs annually. Tax rates should recover these costs and curtail unhealthy habits.
9. Require End-of-Life Directives Americans on Social Security would complete advance directives. Currently, $1.25 trillion is spent in the final year of life—much of it on unwanted interventions. Clear directives, reduce suffering and unnecessary cost.
The Math
The plan needs $13 trillion. The Plan generates $13 trillion.
Deficit eliminated in Year One. Debt retired in ten years. Establishes a surplus for investments and contingencies.
A Word on the Politics
We recognize what this asks of you.
We need your courage.
Voting for tax increases is difficult. It invites attack ads and primary challenges.
But you did not seek this office to preside over manageable decline. You sought it to solve hard problems
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker once observed: "The truly difficult problems are never solved by waiting." The debt is that kind of problem.
The Ask
Review this proposal. Subject it to CBO scoring. Debate the rates, the timelines, the structure.
But do not defer the question itself.
Act while options remain. Act before markets dictate terms. Act because it is your duty—and because history will record who met this moment and who did not.
Respectfully submitted for your consideration.
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Petition created on March 20, 2024