In honor of Tax Day, I’d like to show you a few references.
First, the amount of taxes the government collected in 2005: $1,356,204M
(This excludes SS and Government receipts)
Second, the amount the federal government spent on interest on the public debt in 2005: $352,350,252,507.90
Therefore, interest payments on the public debt as a percentage of tax receipts is 25.9%. Over a quarter of what we pay in taxes goes to pay interest on the national debt. This — $352,350,252,507.90 — was the price we paid in 2005 alone for administration policies that force us to live beyond our means. Imagine, please, how that sum will grow as interest rates increase. It will be a huge proportion of our budget, and one that is entirely beyond our control.
If the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy had been repealed, and taxes had been raised to pay for what our government spent, instead of running up $8,402,073,299,705.08 in debt, we could have used that money in all sorts of meaningful ways.
For instance, we could have eliminated the $319 billion FY2005 unified budget deficit, eliminating any need to borrow money during that entire year.
With the $33 billion dollars we had left over, we could have fully funded the restoration of the wetlands needed to protect New Orleans (around $14 billion), fully fund the rebuilding of the levees ($10 billion and counting), and still have $9 billion left over for other things.
With the Administration continually crowing about National Security, how about funding improvements in port security? What about rail security – which has gotten no air play in spite of bombings in Spain and England. How about some repairs to our crumbling infrastructure? How about funding some of the Federal unfunded mandates, such as “No Child Left Behind?”
Instead of intelligent choices that could maintain what we often refer to as an “American standard of living,” we get to waste the money on interest, which buys nothing but continued campaign contributions.
When self-identified Republicans speak to me about how “illegal immigrants shouldn’t be able to come here and get free medical care and free school lunches,” I respond that I wish Republicans could get that emotionally worked up about corporate welfare. This would be an example of what I am referring to – the people benefiting from these economic policies are banks, multinational corporations, and the super-rich.
But wait – this won’t fit on a bumper sticker, will it?
Comments
Serena said…
Unbelievable.
I’m reading about “wealth inequality” in Sociology. The text points out that 6% of Americans have a net worth of $250,000 or more, whereas over 25% have a net worth of less than $5,000. The top 1% of Americans enjoy almost 40 percent of all wealth (real estate, possessions, stocks, etc.). The top 5th have 84% of the total, leaving the remaining 80 percent of the population with about 16% of the assets.
I suppose if I was in the top 5, I’d support corporate welfare, too. The sad thing is, I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Does BushCo receive any bad press about this from other countries?
6:25 PM
Michael said…
>I suppose if I was in the top 5, I’d support corporate welfare, too.
Which is what confuses me about Republicans who make less than, say, $250K per year.
> BushCo receive any bad press about this from other countries?
No bad press, because it’s worse in many other parts of the world. Think of just about any country in Africa, where the majority live on a dollar a day and the top .001% have a small private army of bodyguards.
Also, it would be a good idea to say that the system is corrupt – if majority rule was currently in the hands of Democrats, we’d have a different set of problems, and the wealth inequity would be pretty much the same. Remember it was Clinton (D) who sold the middle class out with NAFTA and GATT.
6:55 PM