Since the timehonored notion of funding government by taxing citizens has at last been tossed onto the ashheap of history by today's GOP, without actually having figured out how else to fund government or how to dispense with any of its functions or reduce its expenses, I thought I would brainstorm a few ideas.

1. Luxury cabins on the USS Ronald Reagan. Charge billionaires $1 million per night  for a deluxe stateroom on the US Navy's latest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, so they can observe firsthand as America's troops deploy to the Persian Gulf to do their bidding (keep the oil flowing through US petro corporations, protect the shaky kingdoms of sheikhs who invest large amounts in US equities, and so forth). Who's the real commander, anyway? Some pesky admiral? Or the talented CEOs who issue his marching orders?

 2. Billionaire Russian Roulette. How would you like to win a trillion dollars? Then come play the biggest-stakes lottery of them all - Billionaire Russian Roulette! The stakes aren't for just anybody: it's a billion dollars a ticket in this sweepstakes, so you'll be competing against your peers in the elite of society. If you don't win, of course, you'll be bankrupt. But that's the fun of it! Have you got the balls to play? Sponsored by the US Treasury. (Note: assuming a modest 50% profit over payouts, this one could enable the US treasury to pay off as much as 6% of the national debt!)

That's just a couple to get started. Anybody else have any ideas?