Tax Revolt

Michael Corbett is a number cruncher working with government data when the Ultra faction comes to power with a veto proof legislature and a lame duck president. He sees how narrow special interests, in league with party loyalists, are manipulating information to siphon off the resources of the country. He sees a coming day of reckoning that he is powerless to stop. Restricted by his security oaths, he attempts to use public information to expose the abuses of a deceptive promise to America; the 13-States Rights. To the Ultras, this is conspiracy. The party starves the government and strips it of enforcement capabilities. The speaking point, “No more taxes”, is repeated and taken literally by a large part of the population. Corporations, in cynical self-interest, withhold quarterly tax payments for short term benefit of the few. Too late the puppet masters discover that, encouraged by the Ultras’ distain for government, the general public have lost confidence in public institutions. Tax with-holding crusades, intended to starve big government, escalate. Federal employees are furloughed. In a domino effect state, county and city workers follow. Government medical and subsistence systems fail. A government voucher system, instituted to heal the crisis, fails. The electronic banking and financial systems evaporate; the victim of cyber attacks by disgruntled citizens. Pensions, utilities, trash collection, police and fire agencies collapse with the failure of public finance. Could order survive?