Author's Note: Work in Progress - Come back later
Fact: In 2009, the Federal government collected 2.1 trillion dollars in taxes.
Fact: In 2009, the Federal government spent 3.52 trillion dollars.
Fact: In 2009, the Federal government spent 678 billion dollars on Social Security.
Fact: In 2009, the Federal government spent 676 billion dollars on Medicare.
Fact: In 2009, 38.47% of the entire budget went to Social Security and Medicare and the two programmes consumed 64.48% of all Federal tax revenues.
Fact: In 2010, the Federal government collected 2.16 trillion dollars in taxes.
Fact: In 2010, the Federal government spent 3.618 trillion dollars.
Fact: In 2010, the Federal government spent 701 billion dollars on Social Security.
Fact: In 2010, the Federal government spent 793 billion dollars on Medicare.
Fact: In 2010, 41.29% of the entire budget went to Social Security and Medicare and the two programmes consumed 69.17% of all Federal tax revenues.
Fact: Since the Senate last passed a budget (04.03.09), the nation has spent 7.1 trillion–including almost 500 billion in interest payments–and racked up 3.2 trillion in gross federal debt.
Fact: The 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the combined unfunded liability of these two programmes has reached nearly 107 trillion dollars in today's dollars and Laurence Kotlikoff, a well-known professor of economics at Boston University, puts the real figure over 200 trillion dollars!
Fact: Discretionary spending under Bush was 6% when he left office. Obama increased discretionary spending by 11% in 2009 and 14% in 2010.
Fact: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, over the past two decades the average highest tax rate among the 20 major industrial nations has fallen to about 45%. Yet the highest U.S. tax rate would rise to more than 48% under the Obama/Democratic tax hikes. To make matters worse, if we include the average personal income tax rates of developing countries like India and China, the average tax rate around the world is closer to 30%, according to a new study by KPMG.
Fact: Under the baseline scenario, for example, the CBO has determined that the federal government can restore fiscal balance by raising all taxes and cutting all transfer payments immediately and for the indefinite future by 35%.
Fact: The CBO also found that if federal income tax rates are adjusted to allow the government to continue its current level of activity and balance its budget, the lowest marginal income tax rate of 10% would have to rise to 26%.
Fact: The CBO has found that if federal income tax rates are adjusted to allow the government to continue its current level of activity and balance its budget, the 25% marginal tax rate would increase to 66%.
Fact: The CBO also found that if federal income tax rates are adjusted to allow the government to continue its current level of activity and balance its budget, the current highest marginal tax rate on 250,000 dollars (35%) would rise to 92%.
Fact: If the CBO doesn’t do it for you, then try the IMF, which has said that the US has a “critical” fiscal problem and is “not serious” about addressing it. According to the IMF, were the US government to repeal the tax cuts enacted in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA), and were the IPAB to succeed in curbing healthcare spending growth as provided in the IPAB mandate, reining in the fiscal gap would still require an immediate and permanent increase in all taxes and cut in all transfers of 26%.
Fact: According to the IMF, there is an alternative to the Paul Ryan Plan -- an 88% flat tax on everyone. Further, that would be in addition to FICA taxes, which would be 37% on gross income in 2054. [Yes, you read that correctly. 37% payroll taxes on gross income + 88% flat tax on everyone. And, yes, I realize that 37 + 88 = 125. Even if employers were to pay 50% of the 37% (18.5%), you are still left with 88% + 18.5% = 106.5%. Not only would you be working for free, you would also have to pay the government for the privilege of getting to work for nothing. And, you think the Madison labour fight was bad???? LOL]
Fact: According to the CBO, after the reduction in the CGR, capital gains receipts alone, which more than doubled in Clinton's second term, accounted for more than 30% of the increase in income tax receipts above the rate of GDP growth.
Fact: In an essay titled “Desperately Seeking Revenue,” Rosanne Altshuler, Katherine Lim, and Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center found that achieving a budget deficit of 3% of GDP by 2020 through tax increases on over-250,000s would require doubling their rates, kicking the top rate to 76.8%.
Fact: If you raised taxes to 90% on the wealthiest Americans, forget about debt reduction. You wouldn’t be able to eliminate the budget deficit.
Fact: If you confiscated every penny owned (not just earned) by the 400 wealthiest Americans – 1.36825 TRILLION DOLLARS – you would still have a 300 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT IN FY 2011.
Fact: If you confiscated every penny owned (not just earned) by the 400 wealthiest Americans – 1.36825 TRILLION DOLLARS – you would still not have enough money to fund Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for one year.
Fact: Under the Obama tax plan, the Bush rates would be repealed for the top brackets. Yet the "cost" of extending all the Bush rates in 2011 over 10 years was about 3.7 trillion dollars. Some 3 trillion dollars of that was for everything but the top brackets—and Obama says he wants to extend those rates forever. According to IRS data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over 100,000 dollars in 2008 was about 1.582 trillion dollars. Even if all these Americans—most of whom are far from wealthy—were taxed at 100%, it wouldn't cover Obama's 1.65 trillion dollar deficit for this year.
Fact: In 2007, all households in the US earned roughly 7.723 trillion dollars. One half, 49.98%, of all income in the US was earned by households with an income over 100,000, the top 20%.
Fact: If we assumed that EVERY penny of income reported by those households earning over a 100,000 dollars was from capital gains and slapped a 100% CGR on it, you would generate 3.86 trillion in income (and you can kiss future high revenues goodbye, since you will have removed the impetus to work and earn more), which would allow you to balance the budget for ONE year.
Fact: If we assumed that EVERY penny of income reported by those households earning over 100,000 dollars was from capital gains and taxed it at 25%, you would generate (I am intentionally ignoring tax shelters like MUNIs and the fact that decreases in CGR lead to increase revenues): 25% CGR: 7.723 x .4998 x .25 = 964.48 billion dollars and you will still have over a 700 billion dollar deficit in FY2011.
Fact: If we assumed that EVERY penny of income reported by those households earning over 100,000 dollars was from capital gains and taxed it at 30%, you would generate (I am intentionally ignoring tax shelters like MUNIs and the fact that decreases in CGR lead to increase revenues): 30% CGR: 7.723 x .4998 x .3 = 1.158 trillion dollars and you will still have over a 500 billion dollar deficit in FY2011.
Fact: We could have another Marshall Plan (115.3 billion dollars, in today's dollars), New Deal (500 billion dollars, in today's dollars), Louisiana Purchase (217 billion dollars, in today's dollars), S&L crisis (256 billion dollars, in today's dollars), Vietnam (658 billion dollars, in today's dollars), Iraq (703 billion dollars, in today's dollars), and Korea (454 billion dollars, in today's dollars), and ALL of the gold owned by the 10 biggest holders (704 billion dollars) AND STILL NOT SPEND THE AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT OBAMA WANTS TO IN FY2012.
Peeps, forget what your conniving, corrupt, lying, reelection obsessed politicians tell you. They are just not that into you. That goes for the media, too. Do your own homework!
Once again, America has a spending problem. Not a revenue problem.
But 3.92 million reported income above $200,000 in 2009, and they paid $434 billion in taxes. To put it another way, roughly 90% of the tax filers who would pay more under Mr. Obama's plan aren't millionaires, and 99.99% aren't billionaires.
Between 2007 and 2010, the number of those earning:
$200,000 per year declined by 13%
$1 million per year declined by 39%
$10 million per year declined by 55%
Government Cash Handouts Now Top Tax Revenues
U.S. households are now getting more in cash handouts from the government than they are paying in taxes for the first time since the Great Depression.
Households received 2.3 trillion in some kind of government support in 2010. That includes expanded unemployment benefits, as well as payments for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and stimulus spending, among other things.
But that’s more than the 2.2 trillion households paid in taxes, an amount that has slumped largely due to the recession, according to an analysis by the Fiscal Times.
Also, an estimated 59% of the 308.7 million Americans in this country get at least one federal benefit, according to the Census Bureau, based on 2009 data. An estimated 46.5 million get Social Security; 42.6 million get Medicare; 42.4 million get Medicaid; 36.1 million get food stamps; 12.4 million get housing subsidies; and 3.2 million get Veterans' benefits.
And the handouts from the government have been growing. Government cash handouts account for a whopping 79% of household growth since 2007, even as household tax payments--for things like the income and payroll tax, among other taxes--have fallen by 312 billion.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/04/20/government-cash-handouts-exceed-tax-revenues/#ixzz1K6rpJW5g
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