'Add To Cart' At The IRS: Picking Programs To Fund

#204: Firming Up Our Body Politic
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Ok, so we're out of shape, with some of us falling for fake news, others not even caring, let alone voting.  What's our way back to a healthy 'us', aside from making voting itself more convenient?

* Reward people for finding out about the issues.  I've written a lot about this.  A brief recap, appears below.

* Give taxpayers various spending options at the IRS website.  They can skip past, or dig deep.  What are their favorite programs: Feeding kids? Mending roads? Funding the FBI?  Pick a few or look even deeper.

How would a taxpayer 'add to cart' at the IRS?  You'd click on the depth you wanted.  Want just a choice between two budget plans (Democratic and Republican)?  What about more $$ for education and less for oil company tax breaks?  Would you like a video recommendation from your senator or congress member?  What about the Congressional Budget Office explaining a particular spending option?

In any event, the IRS website would accumulate data on what Americans want from their government.  What happens next?  Our elected congressmen and -women decide what the information means.  Maybe this would involve adopting popular choices.  Perhaps a formula is constructed that mixes shallow and deep preferences.  Polling firms could even be involved.

The important thing is that voters have access to choices they believe in, and information they can use in helping make those choices.  We'll save the details for another time.

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Above, I said I'd recap the first item: "Reward people for finding out about the issues".   Here goes:
1. Participating Representatives post website videos that run about 5 minutes, asking constituents for their opinion on various issues.
2. Constituents watch videos, and answer multiple-choice questions.
3. Congressional offices are than informed, by outside polling firms, what the collected data say.
4. All participating constituents can opt in to a monthly drawing for their congressional district.  Ten winners per month, per district, receive US savings bonds.

For all the details here is a longer article with a FAQ section.

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Both ideas would have a tendency to get voters plugged into the decision making process.  Information and decision making are the antidotes to 'fake news'.