Article 2. Massive Savings Through Massive Simplification of Government

By simplifying Internal Revenue Tax Rates the staffing of the IRS could be reduced by % 80 saving an estimated $100 billion.

There is an incredible amount of savings in the Federal Government just by rethinking how we do government operations.  In many cases simplification of government is difficult because of the requirements for maintaining public health and services and the prevention of fraud and abuse.  But over the years regulation upon regulation compounds what could be a much simpler process.  Lean Six Sigma is one of the best tools for simplifying existing government systems.  But what I am suggesting is that we should start not by examining the current government systems but by encouraging Congress to examine and simplify how government operates.

This simplification idea come to me following the IRS’s action in preventing the formation of  private organizations against Big Government.  Surely they must have something to hide and indeed they do.  For example a good place to start is by simplifying the present tax code.  One way of doing this is by the implementation of a Flat Tax which greatly simplifies our Federal Income Tax structure.  This simple reform could reduce the Internal Revenue Service staffing by as much as 80%.  No amount of tweaking of the present IRS system could yield this kind of savings.  This reform also could reduce the cost of preparing your individual and business income tax in the private sector by saving as much as 80%.  This can result in a tremendous boost to the economy creating more jobs in the private sector.

My approach at this website for reforming current government operations has been to first eliminate as much waste as possible, this is the visible waste that anyone can see, then implement Lean Six Sigma to make the high level government systems efficient and effective.  This is followed by the implementation of the authors General Reform Model based on the implementation of Enterprise Lean in its first phase.  The savings resulting from the normal approach is estimated to be as much as 20% or more.

Approach for Implementing Mass Simplification of Government Operations
Mass simplification starts with Congressional innovation and rethinking of where government can be simplified.  This may be difficult because much of government spending is done in the states where government facilities and military bases are located.  The key to avoiding infighting in Congress is to find a massive simplification project that nearly all can agree on.  Hence my example of the Flat Tax in simplifying the IRS.

My recommended approach is to form a new organization for the implementation the Flat Tax.  This new organization starts from the ground up building up the organization just like a private startup company. Each new system will be developed by using Lean Six Sigma to create a cost efficient and effective system.  The organization would grow slowly through the implementation of each new system.  As the systems are developed personnel from the old IRS bureaucracy would be retrained in the new team management organization.  Those Old IRS systems required in the new organization would under go the review by a Lean Six Sigma Team.  When the process is completed the new IRS organization would be a Team Managed organization rather than a Bureaucracy with the management coming from the Lean Six Sigma Teams who built the new IRS organization.  After the new systems in the new organization have been proven we pull the plug on the old IRS organization shutting it down.

This Approach differs significantly from the standard organization building approach where Congress votes for funding the entire reform starting with the appointment of the head of the organization at the top of the bureaucracy and the organization is built downward with each department head hiring its employees.  Secondary attention is given to the development of the systems which will run the organization.