What If?

“I promise to take the government out of your life, your kitchen, your car, and your health plans.” Marsha Wilkerson repeatedly made this rousing campaign promise, but failed to explain her plans to do so. Those words carried the charismatic woman through the long Presidential campaign to the final night in November. Shouts of victory went up throughout the United States when, before midnight on the fourth, CNN declared her the next President-elect of the country. Meanwhile, young members of her own political party easily won their seats in Congress, forcing out the older men and women of the opposing party.

January 20th came, and President Wilkerson immediately began following up on her promises. During her first television appearance, the delighted citizens heard her say, “My first act as President, also approved overwhelmingly by Congress, is to abolish the federal income tax. Starting with your next paycheck, there will no longer be deductions going toward wasteful government agencies. You still will pay state and local taxes, but your federal government no longer will take a cut of your hard-earned money.”

For weeks following her announcement, the delighted workers did see an increase in their net pay. It took longer, though, for the downside of this windfall to sink in. In the homes of many worried adults were comments like, “Did you watch the local news today? There’s been a sharp rise in our city’s unemployment. The Governor came on TV and said our state will run out of money if we keep paying unemployment benefits.”

Without Federal assistance, the states did quickly run out of money normally used for programs like welfare and Medicaid. Almost immediately after President Wilkerson’s first announcement, Medicare had dried up with no federal income taxes collected. Even Social Security payments to the elderly and disabled didn’t last long.

By year’s end, every federal government agency had laid off their workers and closed their doors to the public. To make up for the lack of federal assistance, all 50 states increased taxes across the board. These taxes wiped out the small amount gained on a paycheck by the elimination of the federal income tax.

In California, the Assembly rescinded the 1978 Proposition 13, causing property taxes to rise dramatically. Instead of seeing a tax at one percent of their homes value, the higher rate forced many people into foreclosure when they were unable to pay. Banks refused to accept the homes back, and the people found themselves liable for not only the property tax, but penalties for not paying the tax. State Tax Bureaus garnished salaries to recoup this money, bringing down the net pay even lower.

The stock markets, unhindered by federal regulations, thrived. Employees found their 401(k) plans growing beyond their wildest dreams and increased their donations. This lack of government safeguards brought out the various Madoffs and Sanfords. These men and women used Ponzi schemes to gain their own billions. Unlike in the past, the responsible federal agencies never stepped in, since most no longer existed. Millions of hardworking people woke up one morning to find their retirement money reduced to nothing. That was, the lucky ones still with a job. By now, they were in the minority.

During the four years of President Wilkerson’s time in the White House, the United States slid into what the rest of the world considered a third-world country. The people running the state governments tried their best to keep their citizens safe, but deaths increased without monitoring of new drugs by the FDA or alerting people of tainted food. Water contamination, the purview of the now extinct EPA, wiped out whole populations of small rural towns.

Once again, New Orleans flooded because the Corp of Engineers was not there to reinforce the dikes. In the second year of President Wilkerson’s decision to keep all federal bureaus, departments, and agencies out of the states, a minor flu epidemic grew to a nationwide pandemic. With no CDC to help contain the disease, thousands died in each state, lowering the already decimated population even more. The Customs and Border Protection Department no longer kept drug cartels from invading the country through the Canada and Mexico borders. Illegal aliens, however, who once came into our country to earn a living, stayed away since there were no jobs available.

By the third year after Marsha Wilkerson became President, food riots were common in every large city. Interstate commerce was negligible with most firms unwilling to cross state lines because of the resurgence of vicious highwaymen on those main thoroughfares. Starvation and disease weeded out the sickly, elderly, and youngest. The survivors realized their country might not make it through to the end of President Wilkerson’s term and began to rebel.

It started out small since it is human nature to refuse admitting they had made a horrible mistake with their elected officials. Frustrated citizens scoured the countryside for honorable men and women to replace President Wilkerson and the members of Congress the following year.

* * *

“I want the government out of my life, my kitchen, my car, and my health plan.”

A woman posted this on a newsgroup that I read, and her comment prompted me to write this possible future scenario. If this happened, which of course it never will, is my story so far off the mark?

Think about it before you respond, and think about the lack of a federal government in any country, not just the United States.