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I was going through the white house proposed budget this weekend and there are more than a few call outs (10-20%) that seem superfluous or like they should be h
by jonhohle 3y ago
I was going through the white house proposed budget this weekend and there are more than a few call outs (10-20%) that seem superfluous or like they should be handled by private industries as they seem constrained to benefit those private businesses.
Government money also tends to raise all ships^H^H^H^H^Hprices, so many of the social welfare programs - tuition and home buying loans and assistance, for example - have had the effect of raising prices to the point that most people couldn’t afford them without that assistance. That seems like a good indicator that the program has lost its purpose and should be scrapped for a new idea. Getting rid of those would be immediately deflationary for several sectors (good, imho).
As someone on the hook for $116k in deficit, I’d be much happier to direct my tax dollars to eliminating debt and interest payments and reducing inflation than a great deal of what public money is being spent on.
- Scoundreller 3y ago> As someone on the hook for $116k in deficit, I’d be much happier to direct my tax dollars to eliminating debt and interest payments Our tax returns have a field at the bottom where you can offer to do just that with your tax refund. I suspect it costs them more in ink than the value of any takers. Always seemed like a “nonono, I didn’t mean to pay down the debt with my money!” kinda thing. “Ontario opportunities fund You can help reduce Ontario's debt by completing this area to donate some or all of your 2022 tax refund to the Ontario opportunities fund. Please see the provincial pages for details. ”
- siftrics 3y agoIn the US, you can give extra money to reduce the deficit. You cannot redirect what you already owe so that it all goes towards reducing the deficit. So I think your point "nonono, I didn’t mean to pay down the debt with my money!" is moot.
- amalcon 3y agoThat sort of direction wouldn't be meaningful anyway, since money is fungible.
- jonhohle 3y agoIt’s not like money that was previously allocated for debt service could then be moved to something else. In AZ we can direct about $4k to specific organizations and receive a 1:1 tax credit. That impacts revenues, but not how much those programs would receive otherwise.
- amalcon 3y agoThey could obviously just issue new debt, though.
- siftrics 3y agoYou can make tax-deductible donations to certain organizations. This results in them getting more funding than they otherwise would. Sure, redirections may not modify the budget of the US government programs directly, but it does have meaningful impact on the world.
- digging 3y agoIt would be if federal budgets were determined by the allocations people indicated on their tax filings. But that would be a mess if unrestricted.
- dahfizz 3y agoThe government is already wasting half my paycheck, I'm not going to donate more money and hope its spent wisely. The issue is an inability to budget. If we doubled tax revenue, we would double spending and increase the deficit further.
- adfgionionio 3y ago[flagged]
- hiatus 3y agoMost states have income tax too. CA's is 13%.
- anonymousiam 3y agoIt goes higher when you include state taxes, local taxes, sales taxes, SSI taxes, unemployment insurance, SDI, gas taxes, property taxes, etc. Also, some of the above are paid by both employer and employee, which is an accounting trick to make the taxpayer think he/she is paying less.
- anonymousiam 3y agoIndeed, we haven't had a "budget" in years. Now we have "spending bills" instead.
- zht 3y agoare you in Ontario?
- jonhohle 3y agoIf the tax return said: repay your portion of the debt and you’re off the hook for any future deficit spending or moneys collected to service national debt, I would be tempted to take that offer. Unless there is default, there’s no reason for the government to not to keep accumulating debt.