Syndicated columnist Veronique de Rugy: As Washington gives us 'more,' Americans want 'better'

Congress' annual August recess is a good time to think about the big picture. Most Americans want government reformed for the better. We notice its many breakdowns, and failures to deliver on promises. Yet politicians of both parties usually only talk about more new programs, more spending and more regulations.

Will either party listen, or will they continue down their destructive and unpopular path?

In case some of them are listening, I have a few ideas.

Paul Light, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, writes that while a small majority of Americans prefer that government shrink, what they want more is reform. He reports public demand for "very major" government reform is up to 60% from 37% in 1997, when the Pew Research Center first asked this question. Meanwhile, those who believe government is "basically sound and need(s) only some reform" is down to 28% from 58%. All of that while confidence in government to do the right thing hovers near a historic low.

In that context, it makes sense so many policy proposals from both parties are met with skepticism about the ability of a bloated and debt-burdened government to deliver. The good news is scholars and policy people have plenty of sound reform ideas. In the 1980s and '90s, Republicans, for instance, talked about getting rid of various agencies or stopping the federal government's accumulation of power by devolving functions back to the states and the private sector. Later, they tried to reform Social Security by moving to a system of private accounts. While they failed, these politicians put forward a plan to try to improve, and not just grow, the government.

None of that is being proposed today. Republicans and conservatives are now more interested in expanding rather than reforming the government with programs straight out of the Democrats' agenda (federal paid leave, expanded child tax credit, and subsidies to businesses as a way to fight China.)

My suggestions:

End all forms of government-granted privileges, whether subsidies, guaranteed loans, tax credits or bailouts. Each is unfair not only to taxpayers who foot the bill, but also to the many companies that do not receive them. These handouts distort the economy without even, in many cases, producing the promised results.

This reform might require a constitutional amendment forbidding Congress from producing any law or regulation that discriminates among firms that are similarly situated. Such an amendment would require taxes, regulations and subsidies apply to all firms - not just a few of a certain type. Ideally, this nondiscrimination clause should apply also to individuals.

But our world isn't ideal, so I'll reduce the scope of my second reform to the tax code. Indeed, this code now unfairly treats individuals who make the same income differently. Depending on whether they have kids or paid for their homes with mortgages or not, how they earn their incomes and how much they save or invest, two people making the exact same amount can face very different tax burdens.

This complicated and unfair tax system leads to tax avoidance, evasion and distortions - and thus lower economic growth. Our tax code needs fundamental reform. There are many ways to go about it but ignoring the problem shouldn't be an option.

Third, we should move away from all age-based eligibility criteria, such as the ones used for Social Security and Medicare. Age-based programs made sense when not working due to old age meant being poor (and in fact seniors used to be overrepresented in the lowest income quintile). But no longer. Seniors today disproportionately occupy the top income quintile. So, we should now move all programs to need-based criteria, which would still allow poor seniors to receive benefits.

Many will disagree with these three ideas. That's fine. But let's keep the conversation about making government better, not just bigger. That's what Americans want.

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