Put up your Budget. Cutting agencies is peanuts. Its entitlements and defense that are the big ticket items.
Here is the 2019 Budget, $4.04T
Mandatory spending $2.74T
Social Security $878b
Medicare $625b
Medicaid $412b
Welfare $462b
Interest on the Debt $363b
Discretionary $1.3T
Defense $893.0b
HHS $70.0b
Education $59.9b
VA $83.1b
Homeland $52.7b
Energy Dept $29.2b
NNSA $15.1b
HUD $29.2b
State Dept $40.3b
NASA $19.0b
Foreign Aid $55.0b
All Other Agencies $78.1
Yeah, and?
If you're fool enough to think that there's a way to tax our way out of this mess, I don't even know what to say.
Not just tax, but cut spending and raise taxes, the math works, doing nothing is a disaster, interest on the Debt will consume everything:
Here are recommendations to cut spending and raise revenue to start paying down the $22T Debt
A. Hire another "Grace Commission" to audit and fix the Federal budget deficit
B. B. Cut Spending: [CUT $625b a year]
1. Cut defense to 2017 levels $600b until the Debt is reduced, saving $150b
2. Cut foreign aid $55b (until Debt is paid we can't borrow to give money away)
3. Cut Welfare $200b & Medicaid $200b (about half)
4. Cut education $20b (state responsibility)
US Government Defense Spending History with Charts - a www.usgovernmentspending.com briefing
Current US Defense Spending:
Year Military Veterans Foreign Aid Total Defense
2017 $598.70 billion $178.00 billion $46.30 billion $823.00 billion
2018 $631.20 billion $180.40 billion $49.00 billion $860.50 billion
2019 $684.60 billion $202.10 billion $54.30 billion $941.00 billion
2020 $737.90 billion $219.20 billion $53.10 billion $1.00 trillion
C. To cover the $900b budget deficit the following taxes need to be raised:
1. Raise the top tax rate about 7% above 2016 levels +$400b
2. Implement a new 3% Fed sales tax +$400b
3. Implement a new transaction tax on all stocks & bonds Impose a Tax on Financial Transactions | Congressional Budget Office +$100b
4. Implement a new remittances tax/fee on all money sent out of the US https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/05/tax_remittances_can_build_the_wall.html 2% of $140b is +$3b a year
Abolish agencies, close bases, abandon money-sucking weapons systems that nobody asked for (why are TWO more Ford class CVs being built?) junk Medicare/Medicaid, make a plan to phase out Social Security, get the Fed by the balls...IOW, quit ******* around with the trimming around the edges shit.
Abolish which agencies? Education? HUD? That's $90b
Cut Defense. Agree, but slowly, smartly say $150b to $600b a year, that's $240b a year total cut
Cut Welfare & Medicaid $200b that's $440b a year total cuts
Can't cut Medicare. We paid for that, you don't touch that. We need to fix it.
No ******* way you phase out Social Security, we paid for that, its retirement income. We need to fix it.
So you cut about $450b a year, about half the deficit. Now for new revenue:
1. Raise the top tax rate to 7% above 2016 +$400b
2. Add new stock transaction tax +$100b
3. Add new "3% value added tax" aka sales tax +$400b
That's about $900b in new revenue + $450b a year in cuts so it actually pays down the Debt about $450b a year
Add an increase to the gas tax to pay for Infrastructure and the Budget works well. No one gets screwed.
You tax like a progressive....Good luck on the constitutional amendment you'll need for that Euroweenie VAT.
Now abolish the Departments of Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, HUD, EPA & DHS...Abolish the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and all of its attendant hangers-on...Devolve the FDA to the private sector and abolish the DEA...Privatize the FAA.
Like I said, quit pussyfooting around.