Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
It’s nice to have more money in your pocket. And thanks to the 2017 tax cuts, the typical American is now paying less in taxes.
But we’re still sending a hefty sum of money to Washington. Tally up all the payroll and other taxes on earnings and income, and you’ll find that the average American household forks over more than $26,000 to the feds each year.
Last year, Washington collected more than $3.3 trillion in taxes. So where exactly does all that money go?
Some believe most of it goes to foreign aid and defense. Others think corporate subsidies dominate the budget.
In reality, health entitlements — Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare — and Social Security are the largest and fastest growing programs. Unless Congress fixes these four programs, they — and the ever-growing interest payments on the national debt — will consume every dollar of taxes paid by 2041.
That leaves no money for anything else. Uncle Sam couldn’t spend a penny on defense, food assistance, highways or education without driving the country further into debt.
Right now, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies account for more than a quarter (28.8 percent) of all federal spending. Ten years from now, it’s projected to gobble up more than a third of the budget.
Meanwhile, Social Security, the single largest federal program, accounts for roughly a quarter of all federal spending all by itself. Its trust funds already pay out more than they take in, and its finances will only deteriorate faster as more and more boomers retire.
The Social Security trustees project that unless Congress implements much needed reforms, the program will run out of reserve funds by 2034, potentially triggering a 23 percent cut in benefits.
Other income security programs — veterans’ benefits, food and housing assistance, federal employee retirement, and disability — account for 16 percent of the budget. That’s more than we spend on national defense.
And the defense budget covers everything from military paychecks to operations overseas to the research, development and acquisition of new technologies and equipment.
At 15 percent of the federal budget, defense spending is the last major category of federal spending. Most of what is left goes to people and corporations who hold Washington’s IOUs. Currently, 8 percent of the budget goes to interest payments on this debt.
Over the coming decade, U.S. debt held by the public is projected to balloon to nearly 93 percent of gross domestic product. But don’t blame that on “inadequate taxation.” By 2024, the pro-growth tax enacted in 2017 will actually raise more revenue yearly than the old system.
No, the culprit here is runaway spending, driven primarily by huge increases in health and Social Security outlays.
Left unchecked, growing government spending and historically high levels of debt will ultimately require higher taxes.
Eventually, rising debt will leave lawmakers with few options to avoid a financial crisis. Unless we can reverse course, it is only a matter of time before every American will be forced to pay higher income and payroll taxes.
Justin Bogie and Adam N. Michel are both senior policy analysts in The Heritage Foundation’s Hermann Center for the Federal Budget. Contact Heritage Foundation:
