Bruce Bartlett makes the case for raising government revenue through “offsetting receipts” and user fees for government-provided services.
Once upon a time, it was a principle of conservative budget analysis that the federal government ought to impose user fees wherever possible, because it was unfair for taxpayers to subsidize programs that benefited only a limited group of people or businesses.
For example, user fees were a big part of the recommendations put forward by the Grace Commission, established by Ronald Reagan to find ways of reducing federal costs. It published an entire volume detailing opportunities to impose fees and raise those insufficient to cover benefits received by users of government services. . . .
The Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office periodically publish reports on user fees that can easily be consulted for ideas on how they can be improved. Budget conventions that treat such fees as reduced spending offer a way out of the budget impasse imposed by the tax pledge. And they could make a major contribution to meeting the $1.5 trillion deficit-reduction target that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction must meet by Nov. 23.