In the Spring Issue of Democracy, out in newsstands this week, Ethan Porter, contributing editor at Democracy, and David Kendall of Third Way have an essay promoting the idea of a taxpayer receipt.

In the March 13 edition of The Washington Post, Porter and Kendall preview the idea in an op-ed. They write:

We’re a nation of savvy shoppers, and we expect that details about the products we buy will be readily available to us. Want to know where your pants were made? Look at the label. What about the calorie count for a Big Mac? In many McDonald’s, it’s right up there on the menu. And after making almost any purchase, we are handed a receipt detailing each item we bought, along with the price.

But when it comes to the largest purchase a typical consumer makes in a given year – the amount he or she spends on federal taxes – there’s no detailed record of the transaction that comes with sending that check off to the IRS.

The federal government should explain exactly where each person’s tax money goes. We need a taxpayer receipt.

To read the rest of the op-ed, click here. To read their piece in the new issue of Democracy, click here.