How would you allocate your taxes to be spent?

[NM11046]

This topic came up elsewhere and is an interesting one for sure.  If you could determine what percentage of your tax dollars went where how would you break it up?

 

The current items our taxes are invested in are below - note in your comments how you would divvy up your tax dollars if you could allocate %'s as you saw fit (adding any categories you think are missing).

 

• Social Security
• Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP/Marketplace Subsidies
• Defense and National Security Assistance
• Safety Net Programs (a recent ex is the child credit program - also think supplemental income for disabled etc)
• Interest on Government Debt
• Benefits for Veterans and Government/Federal Employees
• Transportation
• Education
• Science & Medical Research

 

[NM11046]

18% - Social Security

17% - Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP/Marketplace Subsidies

2% - Defense and National Security Assistance

15% - Safety Net Programs (a recent ex is the child credit program - also think supplemental income for disabled etc)

5% - Interest on Government Debt

0 - Benefits for Veterans and Government/Federal Employees

15% - Transportation

13% - Education

15% - Science & Medical Research

 

I'm not sure why exactly the benefits federal employees get are paid for by us - many for their lifetime after they serve.  I do believe vets should get that, but do not agree that our 1 term congressperson should get them, nor the past president of the US when so many use their time in office to make a ton of money afterward.  

 

I think we spend far too much on defense, and that if we had a responsible government (as most recently democratic presidents have shown) you can cut the debt by practical spending.  The fact that we let recent GOP leaders run the table giving tax cuts and other monetary benefits to their populace has increased the debt substantially - for all the wrong reasons.

 

I could probably be convinced some of my percentages are off, but I think we must take care of our people first and foremost.

[Archy1221]

14 minutes ago, NM11046 said:

18% - Social Security

17% - Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP/Marketplace Subsidies

2% - Defense and National Security Assistance

15% - Safety Net Programs (a recent ex is the child credit program - also think supplemental income for disabled etc)

5% - Interest on Government Debt

0 - Benefits for Veterans and Government/Federal Employees

15% - Transportation

13% - Education

15% - Science & Medical Research

 

I'm not sure why exactly the benefits federal employees get are paid for by us - many for their lifetime after they serve.  I do believe vets should get that, but do not agree that our 1 term congressperson should get them, nor the past president of the US when so many use their time in office to make a ton of money afterward.  

 

I think we spend far too much on defense, and that if we had a responsible government (as most recently democratic presidents have shown) you can cut the debt by practical spending.  The fact that we let recent GOP leaders run the table giving tax cuts and other monetary benefits to their populace has increased the debt substantially - for all the wrong reasons.

 

I could probably be convinced some of my percentages are off, but I think we must take care of our people first and foremost.

Interesting topic.  I’m not quibbling with any of how you personally want your dollars allocated, it’s just an FYI… You have 5% allocated for debt service.  Currently our debt service is 9% in a historically low interest rate environment.  If everyone chose the 5%, we would default as a country.  

I think this exercise should start with the debt service being taken out first to fully find the payments, and then parcel out the rest as you have.  

[Cdog923]

• Social Security - 5%
• Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP/Marketplace Subsidies - 15%
• Defense and National Security Assistance - 10% 
• Safety Net Programs - 10%
• Interest on Government Debt - 5%
• Benefits for Veterans and Government/Federal Employees - 5% (All of this applicable to Veteran's Affairs)
• Transportation - 15% (Assuming this is where infrastructure is addressed)
• Education - 20%
• Science & Medical Research - 15% 

[JJ Husker]

It is helpful to look at where the revenue is coming from and what the current spending levels are. Don’t want to attack anyone but I don’t think that is happening based on some of yall’s numbers.

 

Social Security 18% (+1%)
Medicare & Health 25% (+3%)

Defense 7% (-4%)

Safety Net Programs 24% (same)

Interest on Debt 5% (same)

Veterans Benes 3% (same)

Education 6% (+2%)

Transportation 4%

Science&Research 4%
Genl Govt & Other 1%

Surplus 3%

I couldn’t find current spending levels for transportation and science/research. I didn’t dig too deeply as I couldn’t match the proposed categories exactly to existing. I’m sure Id have all the answers with about 1 more day to look into it 

 

I did find it surprising that I am not changing things more drastically. But hey, my budget has a surplus that could service the debt.
 

[NM11046]

Good point JJ - I def didn't do that.  I particularly like your carve out specifically for vets, and the decrease in defense to boost ss, medicare etc.  Well done!

[JJ Husker]

2 hours ago, Cdog923 said:

• Social Security - 5%
• Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP/Marketplace Subsidies - 15%
• Defense and National Security Assistance - 10% 
• Safety Net Programs - 10%
• Interest on Government Debt - 5%
• Benefits for Veterans and Government/Federal Employees - 5% (All of this applicable to Veteran's Affairs)
• Transportation - 15% (Assuming this is where infrastructure is addressed)
• Education - 20%
• Science & Medical Research - 15% 

Don’t want to attack you but social security taxes and medicare taxes generate about 31% of revenue and your spending on those categories only totals 20%. Not sure we should be collecting those funds under false pretenses. 

[Lorewarn]

Climate change R&D - 40%

Social Security/Safety Net/Health care - 30%

Education - 20%

Transportation - 6.5%

Vets - 2.5%

Defense - 1%

 

[Archy1221]

15 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

It is helpful to look at where the revenue is coming from and what the current spending levels are. Don’t want to attack anyone but I don’t think that is happening based on some of yall’s numbers.

 

Social Security 18% (+1%)
Medicare & Health 25% (+3%)

Defense 7% (-4%)

Safety Net Programs 24% (same)

Interest on Debt 5% (same)

Veterans Benes 3% (same)

Education 6% (+2%)

Transportation 4%

Science&Research 4%
Genl Govt & Other 1%

Surplus 3%

I couldn’t find current spending levels for transportation and science/research. I didn’t dig too deeply as I couldn’t match the proposed categories exactly to existing. I’m sure Id have all the answers with about 1 more day to look into it 

 

I did find it surprising that I am not changing things more drastically. But hey, my budget has a surplus that could service the debt.
 

Everyone so far has the debt service at 5% yet it accounts for 9% of the current budget and will likely rise when rates rise.  Do people want to default and not pay the countries obligations?  Not directed solely at you, just replying to the current message and get your perspective on this 

[JJ Husker]

Just now, Archy1221 said:

Everyone so far has the debt service at 5% yet it accounts for 9% of the current budget and will likely rise when rates rise.  Do people want to default and not pay the countries obligations?  Not directed solely at you, just replying to the current message and get your perspective on this 

The numbers I found for 2021 list interest on debt at 5%. 

 

Obviously whatever the real number is has to be maintained. I did build a surplus into my spending which would be used to reduce the debt and therefore reduce interest in future years.

[JJ Husker]

I also copped out a bit on keeping the safety net spending unchanged at 24%. I think that could be trimmed up looking further into what it entails.

 

The figures I found call that category “Income Security” but 50% of it (12% of all total spending) is mysteriously categorized as “other income security”. Others are Unemployment 24%, Food & Nutrition 10%, Fed Empl Retirement 9%, and Housing assistance 5%. I would increase spending for Food and Housing, put fed employees in the same social security as the rest of us and, without more detailed information, completely eliminate anything called simply “other”. So likely I could cut safety net spending while still increasing real benefits.

[JJ Husker]

Something else to keep in mind. Total revenue is about $3.92T so every 1% of your spending is about $39.2B or $39,200,000,000.00  A number like 15% is actually $588B. 
 

The numbers are so huge its almost incomprehensible.

[Archy1221]

46 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

The numbers I found for 2021 list interest on debt at 5%. 

 

Obviously whatever the real number is has to be maintained. I did build a surplus into my spending which would be used to reduce the debt and therefore reduce interest in future years.

Here is where I got the 9% figure from

 

https://www.crfb.org/papers/how-high-are-federal-interest-payments

 

Two other sources had it around 8.5%

[JJ Husker]

5 minutes ago, Archy1221 said:

Here is where I got the 9% figure from

 

https://www.crfb.org/papers/how-high-are-federal-interest-payments

 

Two other sources had it around 8.5%

I see where the discrepancy lies. The number I am looking at combines interest debt expenditures with interest received.

$562.4B spent in debt

$203.2B collected interest

Net outlay $359.2B or about 5% instead of 8.5 or 9%.
 

Considering that interest income is not accounted for elsewhere, the 5% is probably the better number to use in this situation. But technically you are correct that the expense is higher.

[deedsker]

https://www.crfb.org/debtfixer/

 

Fun little calculator. It obviously has an agenda and only includes a lot of proposed changes and not a lot of good solutions that would not likely be in corporate America's best interest. A lot of defense spending changes I would propose aren't available but it does give you some interesting choices.