That’s an interesting idea. I don’t see why they couldn’t have added some enforcement to the old requisition system and made it work without direct national taxation.
If the federal budget was proportioned to each House district,
consider how the States would need to draw their district lines.
To have to draw district lines that had both
an “even” distribution of population...
and an “even” distribution of wealth...
I’m not sure it could be done.
(...not to even mention as to how one should define “wealth”.)
What sort of enforcement would you have recommended?
Outside of wars, for 120 years, the government lived off excises and imposts, just as the federalists predicted.