America: Here is your tax dollars.

skadistic said:

No the money raised go for books and stuff the schools can't afford because of the strangle hold teacher unions have on school districts. The unions see to it that worthless teachers stay despite being worthless. Thats a waste. There are other things about it to but thats the biggest problem schools face.

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And you think that with better teachers there wouldn't be any need for fundraisers?

I'm sorry if I sound confused but I am - I thought that fundraisers were here to buy school supplies that the school lacked because of inappropriate funding, and I don't see how the quality of the teachers factor into that...

What's "aid to the needy?" Is it just welfare and foreign aid? Because I hear America spends very little on forgien aid and welfare can't be that high. Also, what's social security, and what's medicare?

Of all those expenditures, can anyone figure out which ones qualify as investments, which would show a net return to the economy?

skadistic said:

No the money raised go for books and stuff the schools can't afford because of the strangle hold teacher unions have on school districts. The unions see to it that worthless teachers stay despite being worthless. Thats a waste. There are other things about it to but thats the biggest problem schools face.

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That is horsemanure! The US has a shortage of good teachers because it doesnt pay. You are one who speaks of the free entriprise in such a way that you of all posters should understand why good teachers take other jobs instead of pursuing the field which they have earnistly trained for. Teachers constantly leave teaching professions because they can support their families better by taking other jobs.

The teachers union may be corrupt like every government organization appears to be corrupt. But that corruption is not why good teachers leave. Beyond all that there are such huge cuts in spending that schools can not even afford the basic tools they need. There is a serious problem here. It needs to be fixed!

skadistic said:

No the money raised go for books and stuff the schools can't afford because of the strangle hold teacher unions have on school districts. The unions see to it that worthless teachers stay despite being worthless. Thats a waste. There are other things about it to but thats the biggest problem schools face.

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I assume you don't have kids.

I have 3 and I can tell you that were I live the teachers are great. The biggest "problem" are the parents and the politicians. Easily. No contest.

Teachers have less power than ever. I researched this because for a while I considered teaching at the high school level. Then I realized how much my ability to teach would be at the mercy of PC/narcissistic/indulgent parents and asinine testing standards that have little basis in reality.

CIVPhilzilla said:

That would knock the current average income tax of 35% down to about 2.1%.

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The VERY TOP marginal income tax rate is 35% and you do not even start paying that rate until your 336,551st tax dollar. Your first $336,550 is tax at lower rates.

JollyRoger said:

The VERY TOP marginal income tax rate is 35% and you do not even start paying that rate until your 336,551st tax dollar. Your first $336,550 is tax at lower rates.

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Exactly. I think after all was said and done I paid about 8% in federal taxes.

Godwynn said:

I am a budget hawk. I can just look at that and cry. Interest on the national debt! If we could just get that damn thing lower we could slash taxes by 10%

The military is paid 5x's what Health & Education is. I know states mainly take care of education, no need to tell me that, but imagine if the Fed could kick in some more aid to students.

Medicare and Social Security is 36% of the total budget!

So to you, what needs to be cut? What needs to be increased?

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What annoys the hell out of me though is when people try to get the benefit without solving problem and lowering taxes to pay off the debt. In the long run, administrations like Reagan and Bush will be creating more taxes, as that debt goes up. Of course its not just them, theres virtually no congressmen who take cutting the debt seriously. For all the democrats talked about it under the Bush years, their allready loading legislation with pork just the same. Everyone only has to talk about the problems at the time of the election to get into office, so the debt always gets left to the next guy.

What needs to be cut is the pork spending in congress, by abolishing the institution if neccesary. Cut foreign Aid, and demand that certain nation (the ones benefiting the most from it) pay much higher costs for the basing of U.S. troops there (specifically South Korea, and Japan, if they refuse to Re-arm). Military Spending shouldn't be cut, however.

.Shane. said:

Exactly. I think after all was said and done I paid about 8% in federal taxes.

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And the feds are giving me about 200 bucks back. Its local stuff where I get killed.

Obviously, we need to address this SS problem. Cutting taxes across the board won't help much, because then states will be forced to raise taxes, unless we have institutional reform in how we administer programs.

CIVPhilzilla said:

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Quoted for excellence.

Godwynn said:

The military is paid 5x's what Health & Education is.

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I know the federal budget for Health is not really representative, because of the way your system is set up, but 40% of the economic growth of the USA in the last 50 years has been due to the increased healthy lifespan due to improved medical services and healthier living.

I read the Wall Street Journal today that military reenlistment bonuses were $1.03 billion last year. In 2003, the reenlistment bonuses were $174 million. Talk about out-of-control spending.

JollyRoger said:

The VERY TOP marginal income tax rate is 35% and you do not even start paying that rate until your 336,551st tax dollar. Your first $336,550 is tax at lower rates.

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Alright well either way under my budget plan taxes would be much, much lower than what people of all income brackets are paying now.

Perfection said:

So just drop social security without warning?

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You could set a cut off saying all those after a certain age will retain their benefits, use the savings from the other cuts to offset the cost, and tell the rest of the populace they will be returned all their money and then some with generous tax breaks.

CIVPhilzilla said:

Alright well either way under my budget plan taxes would be much, much lower than what people of all income brackets are paying now.

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If you can't quote credible tax rates, how can anyone trust the though you put into your plan? How would you deal with the out of control increases in military reenlistment bonuses?

I just thought I'd throw some more numbers out for those who are interested in such things.

For perspective:

Federal government spending in 2006 amounted to $2.691 trillion. Federal receipts amounted to $2.538 trillion. Defense spending was approximately $550 billion. (Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis)

US GDP from 2006 was $13.2 trillion. (BEA)

Pork barrel spending for 2006 has been estimated at around $29 billion. Even if that figure is underestimating the true cost of pork spending (and it probably is), the result is the same: Eradicating pork barrel spending will not even put a dent in the Federal budget of $2.7 trillion. Anyone who thinks that by cutting pork barrel spending, the United States can pull itself out of debt, is fooling themselves. (This is not to say that pork spending should not be reduced; I wholeheartedly agree that wasteful spending should be kept at a minimum.)

Continuing on with the debt/deficit issue. I agree that the national debt is a major issue, and one that needs resolving. I also agree that it would be nice to cut out that huge portion of spending noted as "interest on the debt". However, note that while the national deficit has been cleaned up as recently as the Clinton years (and again reemerged during the Bush years), the national debt has not been eradicated since Andrew Jackson's Presidency. Bringing the debt down to zero will require the kind of long-term thinking that Congress does not particularly excel at; however, it is reasonable to demand that the government at least work to reduce the debt.

Further, although it does appear that Education and Health are woefully underfunded, El_Mac is correct in that much of Health/Education spending comes from state and local budgets, not the Federal budget. (Federal education spending in 2005: $70 billion; State/local education spending in the same year: $593 billion.)

Sorry if that was a lot of numbers, but from what I've seen from lurking, this forum should be able to handle it.

Integral

Well, the way America uses its military, much of that 20% seems to just go to entropy.

JollyRoger said:

If you can't quote credible tax rates, how can anyone trust the though you put into your plan? How would you deal with the out of control increases in military reenlistment bonuses?

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Sorry I used a higher income bracket tax rate to give an idea how much taxes could be reduced on the greatest ends. If the upper income tax brackets can be reduces that much the burden in the lower and middle income brackets would be reduced just as much if not more. I didn't realize I was making a formal budget proposal. Next time I'll show the categorical savings for all the taxes we have:

Income, sales, gas, estate, local, state, federal, excise, tariffs, social security, FICA, medicade, capital gains, duties, corporate, alternate minimum tax, property taxes, and school tax.

The point is a lot of our money goes to the government, after all things are considered it probably exceeds 35% for most income brackets, so slashing the budget as I suggest could probably be funded with a small flat income tax like the one I suggested.

As for the military reenlistment bonuses, freeze the increases and work to scale them back to eventually eliminate them.

We need to INCREASE taxes, not decrease them.

MjM said:

We need to INCREASE taxes, not decrease them.

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Heresy! Everyone knows that at every election, the winning party is required to lower taxes, until eventually there is no tax base at all.