Home Joe Curran. Software Guy.

Take away the zeros

Here's how to make sense of the fiscal insanity that is the National Debt.

(from the fiscal year that ended Sept. 2023)

National Debt: $31.999 trillion
Federal Revenues $3.972 trillion
Federal Expenditures $5.496 trillion
Federal Deficit $1.524 trillion
New National Debt $33.523 trillion

Here's how to describe it in language anyone can understand ...

... by taking away the zeros:

We earned $39,720

We spent $54,960

So we ran up another $15,240 on the credit card, the balance of which is now $335,230!

(That's eight times our annual earnings.)

Politicians who refuse to acknowledge this lunacy are not fit to serve.

Spending myths

We're often told that we can reduce federal spending by eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse." Fine. But where? Seventy-five percent of the federal budget is in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Defense and interest on the debt. That's where the money is, and that's were the savings must be found if we're to make real progress.

Here's the 2023 federal budget (in billions) at a glance:

2023 Federal Spending by Category (in $billions)
Social Security 23 1,240
Medicaid 15 812
Defense 13 736
Medicare 13 730
Income Security 13 716
Debt Interest 11 630
Veterans 5 259
Transportation 2 112
Other 5 220
Total 100 $5,496

The wealthy and their "fair share"

Mr. Biden is fond of demonizing the rich and saying that the federal deficit wouldn't be such an issue if only they'd "pay their fare share." Here are some facts from the IRS:

The top 1% pay 22.7% of taxes.
The top 10% pay 50% of taxes.
The top 20% pay 65.3% of taxes.
The top 40% pay 84.3% of taxes.

It seems the wealthy are already paying up.In April 2011 the Wall Street Journal decided to check and see what would happen if we took all the money earned by the top 1% and found that it still wouldn't be enough to covert the federal deficit. Here's the real problem: 43% pay nothing at all!