2 ms·
Almost half of the federal budget goes towards social security, Medicare, and healthcare. Unless you want old people to die in the streets again, “very little”
by acdha 3y ago
Almost half of the federal budget goes towards social security, Medicare, and healthcare. Unless you want old people to die in the streets again, “very little” might not be accurate.
https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function
To the larger point, the tax code needs to be simplified but your real problem is with Congress – we haven’t had a balanced budget since the Clinton administration and that’s because of what they’ve authorized spending on and, in the case of Republicans, defunding the IRS so there’s a substantial deficit between the actual taxes collected and what’s due (especially at the top end where you need experts to show that some rich person is hiding income). Blowing up the tax code won’t solve any of those problems.
- robertlagrant 3y ago> especially at the top end where you need experts to show that some rich person is hiding income Well - until you do that you don't know if there's a substantial deficit between what's collected and what's due.
- acdha 3y agoHence why the IRS has to actually pay people to review tax returns against other sources of information. We know that cheating happens on a regular basis because periodically it’ll come to light in some other way but that also suggests that it’s fairly common since it would defy probability that the only people cheating were the ones who slipped up otherwise and brought their finances under more scrutiny. The easiest way to think about this: cases dropped after Republicans cut funding for investigations in 2011. There’s no reason to think that everyone became more honest at the same time, so we’re under collecting taxes by at least the gap between now and then – and well under the optimal rate where enforcement is likely enough to deter most people. https://www.propublica.org/article/after-budget-cuts-the-irs-work-against-tax-cheats-is-facing-collapse https://www.propublica.org/article/after-budget-cuts-the-irs...
- aaomidi 3y agoLiterally basic statistical inference.
- aaomidi 3y ago> social security, Medicare Both have a separate line item and can't really be compared with the rest of our tax dollars. What's more important is what the discretionary budget is being spent on, and the largest portion of that is the US DOD.
- acdha 3y agoSocial Security is funded by FICA / SECA payroll taxes. Broad attacks on the government’s ability to tax income are not likely to leave that unaffected.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> we haven’t had a balanced budget since the Clinton administration There's no good reason to have a balanced federal budget, even as a long-term goal.