The new fed budget is 3.8 trillon
The fed budget 60 years ago - 1950 - was a bit less than 45 billion. Adjust that for government caused inflation and it would be about 360 billion.
That means the feds are now costing us 10+ times what they used to. I don't think we are getting our money's worth.
Remember also that they took the money that used to be called social security insurance and also used it in the excessive spending.
I wish what I had contributed to social security for the last 50 years had been in my 401k. I would have significantly more money to live on than what the "well run" govenment management (read mis management) of my money.
I wonder...Will the United States declare bankruptcy? No way possible to pay back 9 trillion, no way! So what does our leader do? NOTHING! We are in desperate need of a leader who is serious about financial responsibility. I've flipped from Democrat to Republican. Bless you Scott Brown!!!
It's over $12T and that doesn't include unfunded mandates like SS and federal pensions. In reality it's well North of $50T.
No, he's spent *lots* more.
Carter did that for me. Every Demonicrat since has dug the hole deeper. Though, to be fair, the Rs haven't done a wonderful job with the budget either. The lesser of evils has to go to the R's, though.
Thank God we don't get all the government we pay for.
-- Doug
Where does the cost of gov't services for the more than 50 million population increase from 1950 to today factor into the above?
BTW, there was a budget surplus when Bush came into office.
Lew
But the administration is TRYING to reduce the deficit. On Jan 1st, 2011 the following tax increases will take place:
All of the above will take place unless the Democrats in control of the government vote to reduce taxes or the sun suddenly expires.
My wife just sent me this (a little dated, but still relevant)...
The next time you hear a politician use the Word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about Whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, But one advertising agency did a good job of Putting that figure into some perspective in One of its releases..
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959. B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
While this thought is still fresh in our brain... let's take a look at New Orleans .. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) Is presently asking Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS To rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number... What does it mean?
A. Well ... If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) You each get $516,528.
B. Or... If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or... If you are a family of four... Your family gets $2,066,012.
Washington , D. C
HELLO! Are all your calculators broken??
Building Permit Tax CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax (Fed) Federal Unemployment Tax (FU TA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Permit Tax Gasoline Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax) IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Tax Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service charge taxes Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax (Truckers) Sales Taxes Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone20Federal Excise Tax Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Utility Tax Vehicle License Registration T ax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax (And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago... And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt... We had the largest middle class in the world... And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What happened? Can you spell 'politicians!'
And I still have to Press '1' For English.
I hope this goes around the U S A At least 100 times
What the heck happened?????
[remainder snipped] Another useful comparison: the difference between a million and a billion is the difference between giving me a sip of wine and 30 seconds with your daughter -- or a bottle of gin, and all night with her. [from xkcd.com]
Sure there is. Inflation, current dollar worth a dime.
Good point. I meant to factor it in and forgot to do so. Actually, it is about 150 million increase...about double. Which means the feds are doing
*much* better than I originally stated...they are only spending 5 times as much, not 10.Add in local and state increases and I bet it is back up to 10X overall. Probably more.
Nope, it was us. Example...
POLITICIAN: We want to amend the constitution so we can tax income. That way, we can do more good stuff for you.
VOTER: I don't want more taxes.
POLITICIAN: Oh, don't worry, it isn't going to affect *you*, just an eensy, weensy, tiny percentage of the really, really rich people.
VOTER: Oh, OK. I don't mind you ripping off the fatcats as long as *I* get some.
That's true only if you paid the maximum, or nearly paid it. If you had been lower on the income scale you would more than recover the money that you and your employers put in. What the equivalent interest rate would be I don't know.
In my particular case, even though I was on the high end, I have myself, my wife, and my ex-wife all getting SS based on my payments. So overall, we may well still recover more than I plus my employers paid.
Which merely opens the other end of the argument - that we're living on government handouts - you can't win :-).
------------------------------------ I still remember standing in my hobby shop and listening to the owner bitch about taxes and how federal, state, and local consumed 35%-37% of GDP.
Particular emphasis was placed on the amount of hidden taxes placed on a loaf of bread.
The year was 1947-48 time frame and HST was president..
More than 60 years later, federal, state, and local taxes still consume 35%-37% of GDP.
11 presidents later, nothing much has changed.Government is how we choose to regulate our society.
It has a cost which is less than the cost of anarchy.
Lew
Back in those '50s, the top tax bracket was 90% or so and corporate taxes made up more of the governments income than personal income taxes. In spite of those tax rates, the economy flourished. Go figure :-).
Yeah, makes one wish the previous administration hadn't committed two-trillion-plus (the Congressional Budget Office says that will be the cost once the interest on that debt is paid) to invading and occupying Iraq--those fictional WMDs have turned out to be awful expensive.
This reminds me of the old parable that bears repeating (maybe sending it to Washington??)
Your Taxes Explained!
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
- The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
- The fifth would pay $1.
- The sixth would pay $3.
- The seventh would pay $7.
- The eighth would pay $12.
- The ninth would pay $18.
- The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men --- the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:
- The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
- The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
- The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
- The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
- The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
- The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
It looks like Greece might soon.
Actually, it is more like $12T. But we've been in worse debt before. Not in absolute amounts, but relative to GDP, which is a better reflection of our ability to repay. That $12T is about 80% of GDP. We got to 120% of GDP in the late '40s.
So my take is that the debt is higher than it ought to be, we need to do something about it, but we are not in trouble yet.
-- Doug
cost us. If we ran balanced budgets, our taxes would need to be much much higher.
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