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Behind The Story Show

Behind The Story Show

What If 1% Could Fund the Entire Government?

Oct 14, 2026 · 1h 5m

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About this episode

What if you never filed a tax return again — no April 15th, no IRS — and a single 1% tax funded the entire government? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Gary Barnes, a retired tradesman turned author of Fixing America’s Broken Government, for a wide-ranging conversation about the idea he calls the “receiving tax.” Gary spent 45 years as a wallpapering artisan in southwest Connecticut, raising six children while wrestling with a tax code he describes as 12,000...