What would happen if every tax payer in the country changed their deductions to 15, in effect stopped paying taxes?

Say we did it January 1st, 2014. All of a sudden, what would the government do without our money? Would they be able to function? Or would they start to listen TO us, legislate FOR us, work WITH us?

We hear about obscene amounts of money being spent on re-election campaigns. We hear about the money coming from lobbyists, corporations, and odious people like Sheldon Adelson, and we forget that this money influences politics, sure, but it's not used for anything other than influence. It's not the money that funds Head Start, or Meals on wheels, or any of the wide range of things being affected by the sequester right now. That money ultimately comes from us.

Now, I have no problems with paying my taxes. I appreciate that it's necessary if I want to drive on decent roads, have a fire department and police department if I ever need them, and so on. But my problem comes when, instead of worrying about the people needing chemotherapy, or food assistance, they worry about planes being late. Flying is a pain in the arse regardless. And I don't want to see crashes or twelve hour delays as a result of cuts. But for the most part, waiting on tarmac for an extra three hours isn't a matter of life and death. Chemo and food can be.

If there were any Senators or Congresspeople suffering from Cancer and reliant on the chemo programs that have been cut, bet you the funding would have been found. But it's the flying that they do, from fundraiser to fundraiser, that's most directly affected by the sequester (that they themselves put in to encourage them to work together), and the first thing they felt necessary to work on.

So. If I stopped paying taxes on January 1st, 2014, and took that $1000 a month and gave it to something that actually helped people, and if everyone in the country did that, we'd probably manage to wipe out, say, childhood poverty within the year. I don't know the numbers. But I'd rather the money went to someone more deserving of it than a government that only functions to make sure that enriches itself.

Or, you know, our elected officials could stop being shitty, career politicians, and do the jobs they're theoretically in office for. In every other job you'll ever have, you'll encounter people you don't get on with, or like, and you still find ways to do the job. Why can't the government put on it's big boy pants and learn to do the same? If they did that, there's no need for self-imposed sequesters that are shown to be just words when there's a workaround for the only thing that inconveniences them.