https://www.pay.gov/paygov/forms/formInstance.html?agencyFormId=23779454
This link is hilarious. It seems that the U.S. Treasury has provided the "opportunity" for individuals to "donate" towards reducing the public debt. If you don't believe me, click the above link. This seems like a good way for George Soros, most of Hollywood and the other people that feel guilty about their success to help pay for the huge government and entitlements that they so adore.
I am still having trouble wrapping my head around this one.
Here is the raw dollars & “sense” of our nation's problem. Imagine if this was a household…what would be your financial advice??
ReplyDeleteHousehold INCOME per year: $21,700
Household Expenses per year: ($38,200)
New Debt put on their credit card: $16,500
Added on to their Existing balance on their credit card(s)…hold on…$142,710 (ouch!!)
Total Household Debt now equals: $159,210 (never mind the recurring interest, but I know...that just makes it worse!)
But wait! This "household" informs you they plan to make some “cuts” in their spending habits totaling: ($385)
$385! WOW!! Is that it??
Pretty messed up, right?...so, how would you advise this household??
Well…for “fun”…Let’s add EIGHT MORE ZERO’s to the above numbers…EIGHT!
Why EIGHT? Because this “household” happens to be our U.S. Federal Budget!
Federal Tax Revenue INCOME per year: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal Expenses per year: ($3,820,000,000,000)
New Debt put on our kids, grandchildren, great…etc: $1,650,000,000,000
Added on to our Existing balance on our debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Equals: NEW Total Government Debt: $15,921,000,000,000
But wait! Our government says they will make some CUTS in their spending habits totaling: $38,500,000,000 ($38.5 BILLION – sounds a lot, doesn’t it?)
Well…that is just a tad over 1% of what our government spends or 1.77% of the total revenue they take in…either way…it is pennies to the dollar when you look at it! (Source: C.B.O.)
Any advice?? - - When you put these dollars into numbers you can put your head around, it is pretty enlightening…
So...We really don’t have a tax revenue problem…but we sure do have a spending problem!
Whoever is going to run our country the next four years is really going to have to get down and get NASTY because no country, no republic can sustain itself with this debt load!
Until our country gets ready to sacrifice some sacred cows, it ain't happening. Without meaningful cuts to Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid or Defense (or tax hikes) we will continue to dig ourselves deeper into debt and waste more and more money on interest payments.
ReplyDeleteWell...any additional tax hikes will KILL any incentive to take risks and run businesses. Matter of fact, when marginal tax rates were reduced (Kennedy, Reagan and Bush II), revenues coming into our treasury INCREASED.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that just because our country enjoyed an increase in the dollars pouring into our treasury shouldn't have given our legislators the license to spend even MORE than precvious years! CUT? What is that? Nobody has the guts to tackle any of this...unless they want to be in office for one term.
I am a firm believer that you can't have employees until you have employers first and foremost. They are the ones that create jobs and if you tax them more and more, you will eventually chase them out of the country.
We don;t have a revenue issue, but we sure have a spending problem.