Twelve Republicans have joined in sponsoring the “Reduce America’s Debt Now Act of 2011.” It provides for payroll deduction for any amount a citizen wishes to pay toward lowering our national debt.

On the surface it’s a seemingly needless bill, considering that any American right now, without this legislation, can send a check to the government. But the details of the bill, sponsored by Rick Crawford of Arkansas, show that this is also a really, really, bad bill in many ways.

I’ll let Simon Black of the Sovereign Man blog give you the lowdown. After reading what he reveals, you have to wonder, “What in the world were these Republicans thinking?”:

[I]f an employee feels so compelled and should elect to have a portion of his/her paycheck withheld, the onus of responsibility is now on the employer to make it happen. The employer has to do all the paperwork, withhold the money, send the payment to the Treasury, maintain the account records, and probably submit to all kinds of new filing requirements.

It gets worse (emphasis in the original):

So let’s say there are millions of sheep out there who elect to donate a portion of their toil and sweat so that the Chinese and big financial institutions don’t have to worry about an American default. How does Congress plan on rewarding its most patriotic citizens? By sticking it to them on their taxes, of course.

HR 2411 stipulates that any contribution made to the Treasury in order to pay down the federal debt IS NOT TAX DEDUCTIBLE.

For the record, here are the co-sponsors who jumped on to Crawford’s bill:

Rep Denham, Jeff [CA-19]
Rep Dold, Robert J. [IL-10]
Rep Fincher, Stephen Lee [TN-8]
Rep Flores, Bill [TX-17]
Rep Griffin, Tim [AR-2]
Rep Guinta, Frank C. [NH-1]
Rep Huizenga, Bill [MI-2]
Rep Landry, Jeffrey M. [LA-3]
Rep Palazzo, Steven M. [MS-4]
Rep Scott, Austin [GA-8]
Rep Tiberi, Patrick J. [OH-12]

All but one of these is a freshman (Tiberi is in his sixth term). If conservatives are waiting for the 2010 freshman class to help fight the growing nanny state and cut spending in favor of raising revenue, we may be in big trouble.