Bert Dirschell
Centertown
Dear Editor:
In FY2018 the federal government spent $4,109 billion. It borrowed $984 billion to fund its lust to buy votes, campaign contributions, etc. Sugar daddy spending by the federal government has now increased the national debt to $70,000 for every U.S. citizen. Is there any private citizen so fiscally incompetent that they think they can just keep borrowing more to make the payments on their current loans, and fund new toys? (All dollar figures in 2019 dollars unless noted.)
Lest you mistakenly think the deficit problem is due to lack of income, know that government receipts in 2019 were 10 percent greater than in pre-recession 2007, after adjusting for inflation. (Spending on national defense grew by only 2 percent during this period.)
Presidential candidates are promising you trillions of dollars of new free stuff, if only you will vote for them. They will tax "the rich" to pay for all the free stuff. How have past promises of taxing the rich worked out?
In 1912-13, politicians told us they wanted to replace federal income that came from tariffs with a "tax on the rich." We bought the "tax the rich" nonsense hook, line and sinker and approved the 16th Amendment. Then the tax started a 1 percent on incomes between $76,000 and $500,000, 2019 dollars. The rates topped out at 7 percent on incomes over $15 million. To politicians the income tax was like a drug, they just kept needing more and more to get their high. Current rates are 10 percent on earnings above $12,200; this increases to 37 percent on incomes above $510,300, so much for taxing only the rich. In addition, individual income taxes account for only a small portion of what the federal government extracts from you with other hidden taxes.
With Social Security, politicians promised us a decent retirement income if we would allow them to tax us, and our employer, at a rate of 1 percent on the first $53,000 (2018 dollars) of our earnings. Now they collect 6.2 percent, from both us and our employer, on the first $128,400 of your earnings. When you retire you are paid a pittance. When you die the government keeps the rest of your money. Ask a financial advisor what type of retirement income you could expect if invested 12.4 percent of your income over 40-plus years.
"Opinion" - Google News
February 04, 2020 at 01:11PM
https://ift.tt/2trpChZ
Your Opinion: Federal spending out of control - Jefferson City News Tribune
"Opinion" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2FkSo6m
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment