Government can't, it seems, be cut to accommodate lost revenue. When our excise tax was hidden in the price of goods we bought, everyone assumed business was paying it, not their customers. Then when it became legal to add it to your grocery and doctor bills, moves were begun to get it reduced or replaced. Consumers still don't know that every single cost of doing business is contained in the price of goods and services. Like the cost of every rule and regulation imposed by government.
Every single person pays, however indirectly.
If you think more than 20 percent of the population even suspects that to be true, you aren't tuned in to reality. Kona coffee was so good we convinced ourselves it would be a major export crop. Today, all but a tiny fraction of the coffee processed and packaged here comes from South and Central America or Africa. Kona is a drop in our coffee bucket. Finally, we made doing business here so difficult.