$10 Trillion In Added Debt Shows Bush And Trump Tax Cuts Broke Our Modern Tax Structure

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/


22 %-Social Security
14 %-Health
14 % Medicare
13 % National Defense
13 % Income Security
11 % Net Interest
5 % Veterans Benefits and Services
2 % Transportation
2 % Commerce and Housing Credit
1 % Community and Regional Dev
3 % Other



$1.35 T Social Security
$889 B Health **
$848 B Medicare
$821 B National Defense
$774 B Income Security*
$659 B Net Interest
$302 B Veterans Benefits and Services
$127 B Transportation
$100 B Commerce and Housing Credit
$89 B Community and Regional Dev
$171 B Other


So if we have $1.7-$2.0 trillion deficit, hi h will grow if interest rates stay high, I’d like to hear from spending cut proponents which of the categories and how much they’d like to cut.

*income security- general retirement and disability insurance; federal employee retirement and disability (including military retirement); unemployment compensation; housing assistance; nutrition assistance; and other income security, which includes programs like foster care, Supplemental Security Income, and the earned income and child tax credits.

**health- Health spending includes mandatory spending on health insurance programs like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the ACA Marketplaces; and discretionary spending on federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA.

 

comparison of 2019 to 2023

https://www.cato.org/blog/federal-s...4.45,unless policymakers pursue major reforms.

 

increases 2019 To 2023

Defense 124
SS. 291
Medicare 176
Medicaid 170
Veterans 58

Subtotal 819
Interest 264

Subtotal 1083
Non defense discretionary 281
All other. 395

total increase 1,759

>increase due to inflation 889
>real increase 870

 

Many of them are entitlements and a function of an aging population. I think there were still some holdover pandemic related expenses in early 2023. Then there was interest But yes there were some increases, especially in non defense discretionary, some of which could have been infrastructure bill, chips act or infl reduction act, which where in theory funded when passed.

 

i calculated it using cpi indices , which were about 20% higher in 4 years.

 

what are the big-hitters in Non-defense, discretionary

 

Back in 08, one of the networks did a giant pie chart out of pennies. When you take out the big 3, the amount spent on highways, education, etc is nothing. You could delete all of the, and barely move the needle.

it would be interesting to see health care costs by innovation. Take mobility scooters for example.

all the tax cuts have certainly driven up the interest payments.

 

What is discretionary spending in the federal budget? | Brookings

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/non-defense-discretionary-outlays_2022.png

 

see graph directly above your post



So 2023 is much higher than 2019, but still much lower than many years ago.

 

That, and maybe we could have done without his fraudulent sales pitch to take us in to Iraq. The Iraq war ended up being far more costly, maybe the biggest mistake in our nations history. It took our eye off the Afghanistan mission. It had the knock on effect of creating ISIS, and I’d also argue played a not unsubstantial role in tipping the Republican Party towards losing their damned minds (moving them towards a populist/isolationist party… if not something worse now). So many dominoes fell because of that bs.

 

I’m curious. Did you pay less taxes with the tax cuts, or did you go ahead and pay the same amount of tax you were paying before even though you didn’t have to?

 

60% of the budget is things that government has no business doing and was done purely to buy votes. Retirement, healthcare, income security and interest on all 3 above.

 

Sure, if you want to live in a 3rd world shithole.