> Used wisely Federal mandatory spending was $2.5 trillion in 2017. Mandatory spending includes social security, medicare, medicaid, unemploy. comp., veterans

> Used wisely Federal mandatory spending was $2.5 trillion in 2017. Mandatory spending includes social security, medicare, medicaid, unemploy. comp., veterans benefits, EIC, etc. Interest on the debt was $263 billion. Defense spending was $590 billion. Just those categories $2.5 + $.263 + $.590 = $3.353 Trillion Federal revenue in 2017, including payroll and income taxes, was $3.3 Trillion. Just those three categories exceed total revenue and the remaining budget, non-defense discretionary, spending was just $610 billion. Everybody hates taxes and just about everyone thinks the government is too bloated. Politicians love arguing about stupid piddly $10 million programs but real spending changes would be very, very painful. What I'm saying is I don't see a path toward to world you're describing. For example, > For pensions ... percentage held directly from the salary That's great and it can make a lot of sense. But how do we get there? Right now we have social security funded by payroll taxes. Those taxes alone exceed your ideal 10% tax rate for most. We can't remove those payroll taxes because what would fund social security? We can't remove social security because what would happen to the people dependent and soon to be dependent on it?