The United States and all of the states and local governments should cast away income taxes and property taxes and replace them with sales taxes.

The federal government could operate on a sales tax of about 19 to 21 percent

states could operate their budgets on smaller sales taxes of about five to 10 percent

cities and counties could also operate their budgets on sales tax within a three percent range.

Schools could tack on at either the state or local level to operate their systems. If schools want to keep their historical link to property, perhaps special sales tax on home sales could be dedicated solely to schools and county operations.

Within a new system of sales taxes, without the burdensome income or property taxes, citizens would have the choice of their tax burden.

Governments could easily dedicate specific percentages within these sales taxes to go to various departments. For instance the Department of the Interior could receive 1/4 a cent on the federal 19-21 cents sales tax. The DOD could operate on a larger amount of say 5 percent.

Without burdensome income taxes and property taxes citizens would have more money to spend. They could save more money than they presently do, an unlikely outcome. Or they could spend more money than they currently do, a more likely outcome.

Cost of goods and services would no doubt rise, but the additional money in the citizen's pocket would more than make up for any additional costs in the marketplace.

You are free to choose your tax burden, unlike today. No one is free to choose their tax burden.

While an additional 40 cents on the dollar may seem extreme and produce sticker shock, it is a choice rather than losing 50 percent of your income through the current system of income, property and sales taxes.

Then maybe someday we can become so sophisticated that we can check off a list of the taxes we want to pay beyond necessary government services.

It would make the government have to produce results rather than what we currently have, complete failures at all levels that require more and more funding to produce less and less.