Comment Re:NASA's so called Budget (Score 1) 188
In fact, we should do that. Set up contribution funds seperate from taxes for certain programs that people would be able to contribute to at will. I'd contribute to NASA in a heartbeat. And give people a tax credit for doing so. You dont contribute, you pay taxes like normal, You do contribute, your final tax bill is reduced by say 5%, since your donation to a specific thing you feel strongly about will likely more than offset the credit.
The problem with that is it can be used to protest/starve programs, by donating to *anything* else and thereby lowering the 'normal' tax funding pool. While that's true of any donate-for-tax-credit system, this one would be much more direct, particularly since the donations are funding government programs and thus still factoring into the federal budget.
While you could argue that's "democracy in action", it seems more like the "majority mob rule", particularly when looking at rights- and aid-related programs.