It’s not time for change in this country; it’s time for improvement. Our representative form of government − state and federal − is a joke. Without term limits, the same clowns keep appearing in the circus with the main goal of staying in power to provide for their corporate families and friends.

One way to counteract this miscarriage of the American Dream of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is to limit taxation. Let the people decide where they want their tax dollars spent. Base it on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Google it, if unaware). Everyone would pay for basics: transportation, public safety, clean environment, defense.

Then let us choose where to spend our tax dollars. If I support Planned Parenthood, then I should pay taxes to aid them. A right-wing evangelist should not have to. I don’t support the National Endowment for the Arts; let liberals pay for questionable “art.”

Taxpayer-funded ideologies have torn this country apart. The majority is not always right. A defense budget should protect our shores, it shouldn’t be spent in Afghanistan and Iraq. Let politicians operate only on what we taxpayers give them. Politicians will not make the U.S. great again, only the people will.

Thomas W. Heinonen

North Windham