Revenue-neutral, and achieves the following:

● Closes $1 trillion in current tax loopholes, slashing marginal tax rates to 9%.

● Eliminates state and federal income tax returns for the vast majority of Americans.

● Eliminates today's costly and duplicative state income tax bureaucracies.

● Reduces current employer tax reporting by 50%.

● Repeals the double-taxation of corporate profits.  The resulting 50% increase in stock values will enrich worker pension plans and create two trillion dollars of new investment capital.

● Structured as a simple tool for also shifting tax dollars and programs to the most effective level of government.

Non-discriminatory (equal tax burden on income, savings and consumption, to avoid economic distortion).

● 9% Withholding Tax on wages, interest and dividends, with a $15,000 per earner exemption.

● 9% Sales Tax on "nonessential" consumption (excludes food, rent, medical care, basic utilities, education, and mass transit.)

● 0.9% Capital Transaction Tax on acquisitions of stock, real estate and other investments.

Minimal  tax bureaucracy.

● Federal government collects/distributes state and federal income (withholding) tax.  Eliminate state income tax departments, reports and returns.

● State government collects/distributes state and federal sales taxes.

The Founders understood power.  So they created checks and balances within the federal government, as each branch wields and defends its power. Power lust by one branch is checked by power lust in another.

But internal checks cannot control the overall size of federal government.

To provide an external check on central government, states retained the power to veto any and all federal legislation. That veto power resided in the U.S. Senate, which originally represented state legislatures.

Power over central government was not transferred to the people. It was dismantled.

The old federalism cannot be restored. And nobody's really trying. If supporters were serious, then repealing the 17th Amendment would be their first priority. It's not even on the list.

Hihn proposes a new federalism ... restore accountability at all levels of government ...  but now including the cities and communities which are closest to the people.

● An increasing majority of American workers are now employed by smaller businesses. 

● Smaller employers cannot sponsor the same wide variety of healthcare options -- as routinely available to workers in major corporations or government.

● So genuine healthcare reform requires both of the following:

Replace the tax-preference for employer-based health insurance, freeing all workers to shop for the best value, and select their own coverages  (as we do with home and car insurance). 

Eliminate the costly illusion of free healthcare (paid by somebody  else), freeing all workers to earn and pocket their own savings, instead of ....

Nobody buys insurance for routine expenses. Not with their own money. But add a tax gimmick, have somebody else pay, and those free car washes would become a "Basic Right of all Americans."

We'd get car washes every day, maybe two on weekends. Demand would force prices up. Car insurance rates would skyrocket. The uninsured would be forced to drive dirty cars. Politicians, who created this farce, would proclaim a Car Wash Crisis, "The free market has failed."

That's silly. But it does explain what happened to American health care. The free market hasn't failed -- we don't have one. Free health care has failed -- we can't afford it.