The Incessant Demand For Increased Federal Revenue

[IGetItAlready]

Obama will work with Republicans if they agree to raise taxes

In what has become about the only area of consistency from this administration, Obama is once again asking for "just a little bit more" from America's "wealthy".

It's been the same story for everything from extending student loan interest rates to increasing the debt ceiling to any and all halfhearted attempts at reduced federal spending. INCREASED FEDERAL REVENUE, going so far as to imply we can't reduce spending without generating more money for government to spend which one would then assume would go to paying down the debt but one would be dead wrong in that assumption. There is no way we can even begin to think about paying down the debt and getting this nation on a more secure financial footing before we address the federal government's addiction to spending, frivolous and otherwise. Every dime is spent long before it's ever collected. And then to compound the problem of our inability to live within our means, we're borrowing everyday just to keep the machine running.

Obama needs to realize, win or lose, he has absolutely no credibility when it comes to any desire he might claim to have in regard to reducing federal spending. As such, there is no reason to get all "race baity" when many Americans are adamantly opposed to any and all efforts to "increase federal revenue". Show us what you intend to do were any of your demands for increased federal revenue met. Show us you know how to lead and make the tough decisions today that will benefit us all later and I'm betting much of that opposition would evaporate.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - an' we still in debt...

$213,300,000,000: Individual Income Taxes Set Record in First 2 Months of FY17
December 12, 2016 | The federal government brought in a record of approximately $213,300,000,000 in individual income tax revenues through the first two months of fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through the end of November), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

That is approximately 36 times the $5,966,000,000 the federal government brought in from customs duties imposed on foreign imports over the same two-month span. In constant 2016 dollars (adjusted using the BLS inflation calculator), the record $213,300,000,000 in individual income taxes the Treasury raked in during October-November of this year was up $6,432,550,000 from the $206,867,450,000 it brought in October-November of last year.

Despite hitting this all-time record for individual income-tax revenues during the first two months of this fiscal year, overall federal tax revenues (in constant 2016 dollars) declined from $424,284,540,000 in October-November 2015 to $421,567,000,000 in October-November 2016. That is a drop of $2,717,540,000. While individual income tax receipts increased from last year to this year in the October-November period, inflation-adjusted revenues from corporate income taxes, Social Security and other payroll taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, and customs duties all declined. In constant 2016 dollars, corporation income tax revenues dropped from $8,085,610,000 in October-November 2015 to $2,920,000,000 in October-November this year.

Social Security and other payroll taxes dropped from $165,746,890,000 in October-November of last year to $164,936,000,000 in October-November this year. Excise taxes dropped from $13,407,350,000 in October-November of last year to $12,938,000,000 in October-November this year. Estate and gift taxes dropped from $3,921,440,000 in October-November of last year to $2,875,000,000 in October-November of this year. Customs duties dropped from $6,447,680,000 in October-November of last year to $5,966,000,000 in October-November of this year.

That means that the record $213,300,000,000 in individual income taxes the federal government collected in October-November of this year was approximately 36 times as much as the $5,966,000,000 in customs duties it collected on foreign imports brought into the United States during the same period. While collecting overall tax revenues of $421,567,000,000 in October-November (including the record individual income tax revenues of $213,300,000,000), the federal government spent $602,410,000,000. Thus, the federal government ran a deficit of $180,843,000,000 in the first two months of this fiscal year—despite collecting record individual income tax revenues.

$213,300,000,000: Individual Income Taxes Set Record in First 2 Months of FY17