175 Comments

Just wait. When Trump wins, and Elon Musk becomes part of the administration, his primary duty will be to pare the federal government down to the size of a Boy Scout Troop. Evacuating DC and making it the size of a motor vehicle office will be a doozy. And that will just be a start. The department of Education will be shuttered, as will other bloated federal government warts. By the end of Trump's four year term. Washington DC will be reduced to a ghost town. I'm peeing my pants with glee just thinking about it.

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I applaud your narrative. Adult Pampers on the way for the peeing challenge. I got them from FJB'S garage at his beach house. 🤓

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I think the big diaper packs were placed there to hide the boxes of top secret files he illegally took.

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Most assuredly. And I saw Jill and 🐫 A 's husband hiding behind the big diaper packs.🧷🤓

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founding

Ugh!

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Probably pretty impossible in four years. But it is so important to show the American people SOMETHING can be done with the leviathan in these four years that maybe Vance can come along for another eight years and REALLY get something done.

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I’m not betting against Elon Musk’s ability to get things done. He shrunk Twitter 80% in a day.

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Hope you are right but X is a private company, which still gives him some leeway on how he runs his company. The federal government is a different animal, with their unions and hiring and firing practices that make it damn near impossible to shrink. Then come the lawyers. Four years to a lawyer is like the time in-between diaper changes for FJB. We will see.

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The unions can be destroyed entirely with one EO on the first day. I didn't' know this until a few weeks back, but there is no law authorizing federal employee unions, only EO's.

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Plus Trump’s schedule F employee designation was okayed by SCOTUS. Biden rescinded schedule f, like he did nearly every Trump EO, but Trump plans to reinstate it.

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Great that it's an EO, and therefore can be rescinded.

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Doesn't mean lawyers won't tie it up for eons...

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Or Trump can tell them to eff off.

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And they don't need eons, just 4 years IF they can cheat and bamboozle their way back to the White house in 2029.

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January 17, 1962, Federal employees first obtained the right to engage in collective bargaining through labor organizations when President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, "Employee-Management Cooperation in the Federal Sector."

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And improved it 100%.

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founding

You could make some Congressional spending changes to really choke the agencies off in a few years. Congress would gladly cut their own power to save Our money....like they have demonstrated for last 20 years, now that debt it $30-40 Trillion....

That's the real issue...

As well as Senate approval, and 'FBI Background checks' - collects their share of the vig and knows where the blackmail dirt is to swing votes....

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I’m volunteering for duty in his office.

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I think a lot of us would volunteer to work on that task. Maybe Elon could assemble a staff of experts (like us) and call it the Manhattan Project 2.0.

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The Swamp Project!

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That's great. Call it like it is!!!

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😆 Lovin' that idea.

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Well I already work in the swamp. I know where the skeletons are in my agency. And most likely the same in every agency. I’m a process improvement guy in the federal government who no one listens to. Anxious to get to “improving”.

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Oct 30·edited Oct 30

Have you ever been to Bern, Switzerland? The Swiss Federal Government town.

It takes about 2 hours to walk from the train station, down the main street to the Bear park, on the way back 2 blocks over is the Federal Building, the Swiss National Bank, and one very elegant & snooty hotel. Swiss constitution doesn't allow their federal government to tax and 'spread it around'. A sleepy town compared to the $7 trillion whorehouse on the Potomac..... No illegals, trains are clean, run on time, very little crime, electricity stays on all the time, food & booze is not cheap...reminds me of what I thought Germany must have been like 30 years ago.

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And I’ve heard issues every Swiss citizen a rifle whether they want one or not.

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Pretty much describes Germany as I experienced it in the 80s.

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founding

If that's true, the opposition will claim it doesn't pass the smell test.

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The left's crying will be unbearable-NOT!

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There no geniuses in Congress, Don. That's why we are in this mess. The Donald's proposal will be condemned. Lots of sphincter tightening by the UNIPARTY BLOB and the acolytes of big government inside the beltway. The infected boil of government needs to be lanced surgically and drained. I suggest the Argentina chain saw model.

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"The Donald's proposal will be condemned. "

Yes, his battles will quickly escalate once inaugurated. The frothy-fanged-blob will bite and slash at the Donald for his every policy move. I hope some historian such as Victor Davis Hanson captures the slow death of the beast and a "new" Hollywood (post CCP and Taylor Swift lunatics) write a moving screen play of it.

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"The infected boil of government" - LOL! An excellent metaphor to describe this metastasized carbuncle of sloth, stupidity and cretinism so impressed with itself.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Great comment:

"For example, the federal government used your income taxes to finance its takeover of public schools in the 1970s by pumping trillions of dollars into the system. The result a half-century later Johnny not only can’t read but he doesn’t even know what sex he is."

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Vintage Surberism on display .

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And that's why he's Rush's heir.

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Bad moove for us, goid move for swampdwellers.

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True, we don't have an income tax in Texas, but we sure as you-know-what have property taxes and they're outrageous. No one really owns real estate here, we just rent it from the state.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

I love the proposal of not taxing our social security - we darn sure EARNED it as E. F. Hutton used to say in the way back time!

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Wouldn’t be so infuriating if they just taxed a dollar once but that is not the case. By the time you spend a dollar it has been taxed so many times the poor thing feels like it was gang raped.

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So true and public school taxes compose the largest share.

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founding

Welcome to Socialism 101 where you will have nothing but beg for more government .

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When fully one half of our country thinks government is what makes life better for them, we are going to have an uphill road to eliminate income taxes. People like Bernie Hypocrite Sanders have made a career telling people Socialism is the answer without one shred of proof. Yes, people are that ignorant.

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Same as NH. And it’s never enough. Ever.

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I just voted against all those school bonds in California. Again and again and again, a bottomless pit of corruption. Schools here are a joke.

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Reducing or completely eliminating the Texas Property Tax is on the table for the next legislative session. Most likely it would be replaced by a small bump in the consumption tax. Maybe not ideal but for our state to have a $3B surplus, seems like we help our citizens out. Stay in touch with your reps in Texas!!

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founding

This year our 'bi-partisan' Texas Legislature - who only meets every other year, had a $32 Billion Surplus that they got to SPEND.... Money Extorted from homeowners....sure Texas doesn't have an 'Income Tax'.

Property tax is...wait for it..... A tax on UNREALIZED CAPITAL GAINS.....just like all the Rinos are Squawking about Kamala & FJB's plan to 'Tax Unrealized Capital Gains'!!!!! Texas is HAPPY with it and has been doing it for generations. We have owned the same home in Texas for just over 30 years....in 1993 we paid taxes of $1500, this year it is going to be $15,000.

The Federal spending is $7 Trillion this year, took $2 Trillion in individual tax receipts, another $2 Trillion other receipts. The Feds really DON"T NEED taxes = spending, just borrow more. Begs the Question - Why should individuals pay ANYTHING if Feds don't need our taxes to fund spending, let alone to unMusked-Spending is 1) Constitutional, and 2) Prudent. THEY DONT.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Replace the income tax with income from tariffs, fire (or not hire) the 87,000 new agents proposed by Biden, and slowly desiccate the IRS from the Federal Bureaucracy.

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I'm with you, Shrugged!

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Reassign the IRS agents to ICE (they’ll all quit, win-win).

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😁

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No, dry it up with a blow torch.

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Oct 30·edited Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Democrats, as usual, are the loudest whiners about eliminating any tax. They are the party depending on rhe dependency of the non tax payers and the stupid liberals who think handing someone else’s money to people having kids or welfare loafers who won’t work is good for everyone. You want to have a kid? Why is it my job toI be paying for your bedroom trists? Don’t want to work? Why is it my responsibility to feed and house you?

Doing away with the income tax is really a threat to the one thing Deep Staters cherish the most: power. I say let’s do it.

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Defund the Deep State That would fit on a bumper sticker.

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founding

Agreed Ep .

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This is all Dems have had for the past 70 years. Bribing the low information voter with other peoples money.

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Oct 30·edited Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Take away the federal government and you eliminate the public's biggest enemy. Snatch and grab paycheck programs will end. What's left in Washington DC will be a budget with zero loopholes. Every dollar must be budgeted with a purpose, and may only be used for that specific purpose. Next, congress slush funds that secretly have been used as coverup money for political corruption will be audited.and all previous recipients will go to jail. Once again, with Musk at the helm. Prediction: a mass of elected officials will resign...before Musk even lifts a finger. How good so that?

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He should start by dismantling the CIA and returning it to an intel agency instead of a political agency and arm of the Dem party. Nothing in this country happens without a chop from the CIA.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Ending the income tax would mean we wouldn’t need those 87,000 new IRS agents after all, nor the (roughly) 95,000 existing IRS employees. Hey, if Javier Milei can do it, so can PDJT!

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Yes we will. Black markets will be everywhere.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Let a worker keep their earned wage//what a novel yet hokie idea. dint youse larn nuffin in skool?

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Remember the Depression of 1921? Me neither because Silent Cal cut government spending by 40% and avoided the calamity. It isn't hard. Unfortunately, we have a$$holes like Bitch McConnell who are using your money against you to retain their grift.

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It is the Insider Game in D.C. that is killing the country.

Mitch is more of a backroom/backdoor boy than Graham.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Nunyadam - 🤭!

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I'm going to use Nunyadam (giving credit to Poca Man of course)

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

“Democrats worried a 5% cut would lead to financial cuts to critical state programs,” Name just one critical program. Dare you.

It should be an AND exercise - eliminate government activities of all stripes. AND eliminate taxes.

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Oct 30·edited Oct 30

Only one I can think of is the road department. Need to have them repaired and plowed. But there's usually a gasoline tax that's supposed to cover that.

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Yeah, we see that in Cali. An added 10% gas tax (passed by tricky wording) infuriated voters who thought they were voting against more taxes. Pot hole repairs give way to the yearly billion dollar road collapses on Highway 1 seaside resorts. Big money in those luxe hotels with $1k ‘rustic’ rooms.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

National sales tax. Everybody pays something according to your spending habits. No deductions. Everybody pays.

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Sure, it will start out at about 1%, and in about 3 weeks it'll be 25%

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Exactly!

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Yes - this also encourages/rewards savings.

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We have a referendum on the ballot this year to increase the 9% state sales tax (which is insanely high) to 9.5%. What a stupid thing to do when inflation is raging and people already struggle to pay their bills and feed their families. And we have a republican legislature and governor! Looks like this referendum is going down in the flames it so richly deserves.

That being said, I’ve always been in favor of a national sales tax instead of income taxes. Then, people would only be taxed on what they purchase, which means that illegals, drug dealers, welfare queens and foreign tourists would pay taxes along with citizens who now pay no income taxes at all. It would also allow us to knock the IRS down to a couple hundred people. And best of all, it would keep the government out of our personal finances - it’s none of the governement’s business how we earn our money or how much we earn.

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“Nunyadam” !

Love that! It’s a keeper!

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Sales Tax/Value-Added. Just another Tax.

Europe and Canada have V.A. taxes. Just another complicated, ADDITIONAL tax, on top of Income taxes.

Then they hire more Government Leeches to collect, shuffle paper, audit, mess with you.

Just eliminate income taxes on the first $50,000. And chop the necks of Government Turkeys.

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If we had a national sales tax INSTEAD of an income tax, taxes would be collected at the places where you spend your money. Those businesses/services already have to file sales taxes so it wouldn’t be much of a burden for them. The IRS wouldn’t need all of those agents delving into all those pages and pages of your tax filings because you wouldn’t be filing one at all and there would be no audits or people messing with you. The IRS wouldn’t even need to know your name or anything else about you. And most of it could be done by computers anyway.

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Great Concept, but Government steers the ship and they ain't going to shrink themselves. Income Tax, Sale Tax, Carbon Tax. It is all about plucking from the near-voiceless so Mandarins and the extreme wealth can live in splendor.

ps. Sales Tax inevitably taxes the poor proportionately more, since far more of their income must be spent versus the average Billionaire from whom 99% of their expenditures are optional, not necessities.

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You are right, but it is easy to help the poor by excluding basic foods from the sales tax. They would still pay more of their earnings in sales tax, but this would also force them to consume less "stuff".

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In Canada, we pay 15% tax in total on every good and service we buy everything from chewing gum to clothes to furniture -- that's combined federal and provincial sales taxes. What happens is that it encourages a black market in used goods and in the construction/renovation industry. I can also say that certain restaurant owners are open to taking cash no tax and are so are some retail businesses, but it's more challenging for retailers to do because they are the first to get caught. It also makes people declare to the government that they paid less for a used car than they did in order to pay less sales tax on it. That's what happens when you are over taxed.

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"also makes people declare to the government that they paid less for a used car than they did in order to pay less sales tax on it. "

Now there is a government list of values which is used by edict, regardless of what you paid, AND it is up to you to send a protest and wait for some Government Apparatchik to deign to weigh your Appeal.

Taxes in Canada. Payroll overhead for Employer. 25% (CPP-Social Security 10%, 4-6% Holiday Pay, 1 Statuatory Holiday PER MONTH, WCB, etc. Then for every $1000 paid to an Employee $200-250 is Income tax. Then you get to pay 12-15% V.A. Tax/Sales Tax on everything you purchase.

So...the Government skims more than 50% out of every Private Sector Job in Canada.

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Yes to that. Half of my paycheque goes to taxes! But health care is free (being sacrastic here) as many here say. No, we pay for it through our taxes.

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I don't really see how drug dealers would pay sales taxes, if you mean they would be levied on their purchases and sales.

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Oct 30·edited Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

Don

Great column today! Pre-civil war, we had surpluses all financed by trade tariffs. It can be done, and America would take off like a rocket ship.

I think you are dead on. Both my 11-year grandsons love Trump and think Commie-La is useless!

The real fascists and nut jobs have shown themselves. Believe them.

We will not be ok if Commie-la wins. We will be an "F" of a lot better with Don. Don't skip the down-ballot elections. Senate and House matter. A lot.

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And we need to take a little time to research the "really down ballot" positions, like the judges, school boards, and such--especially when there is no Party designation to go by. I follow politics closely, but admit that for years, I have known practically nothing about many of these races. Alot of us end up skipping those lines on the ballot. Because we have neglected them, we ended up with truly sick school boards and compromised judges.

(And in the primaries, when state and county Republican and Democratic party positions are filled, such as Republican County Chairman, our ignorance has led to RINO's and Communists taking over the Party structures--which has been catastrophic for America.)

This past May (WV primary) I really researched these carefully for the first time. There wasn't much information available, but in many cases I could distinguish between liberal and conservative.

Then I shared my findings with numerous people, who were all eager to have some idea who to vote for. We all want to do the right thing, but for alot of these "really down ballot" positions, it takes some effort.

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Nothing is free but earned results give the most satisfaction proving you right TPG.

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Yes, this has been a major gripe of mine for years. This year there were no judges, etc., on the ballot. I will follow your example next time TPG and do my research. Yesterday on the first day for early voting in California, I voted no on all the propositions (mainly out of spite) except one on rent control and another on criminal justice. There was a steady stream of people turning up at a Embassy Suites hotel. It was well organized, in and out, and this morning I received a confirmation of my vote from the California SOS assuring me my vote would be counted. That has never happened previously and really only assured me that Gavin is definitely running. I voted straight red. I would vote for Bugs Bunny over Gavin any day of the week for anything.

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Haha--know what you mean--voting "No" on the propositions "out of spite"!

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Oct 30Liked by Don Surber

And even before President Trump implements tariffs, ends the IRS, etc., shrinks the government of wasteful Depts. Agencies, etc. right out of the gate he should cut the salaries of every Federal worker across the board, including Congress, by 50% .

That should help speed up the exodus from Washington DC. considerably.

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