In a small, mean, and probably insignificant way this idea harks back to the philosophy of "let the people have and spend their own money". This notion rattling around in the dust of political slogans from bygone days was too successful to be allowed to continue.

If my memory serves, it even held the promise of a year when the Federal government actually finished in the black. Of course that was just too much of a good thing for even the Republicans to let pass, so the almost surplus was tinkled away, even before the Bush's decided to drop our economy into the black hole of Arabian duplicity.

Still it does prove one thing. It proves that even while the Republicans refuse to let us earn a living; and while both parties allow our jobs to continue to flow across our borders, and while the Democrats continue to steal what little we have, to give to those who refuse to try to earn a living (and of course themselves), both sides know that what is needed is to take the money back from the government and give it to those who earned it.

Of course since the government is involved much more of it (than even the pitiful drips offered) will go to feed the bureaucracy, the poor in initiative, the lazy, and the outright crooked, than will probably go back to those who earned it in the first place.