By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Kasz216 on 22 October 2012
Edit Thread
Ail said:
Kasz216 said:
richardhutnik said:
klystron said:
Mr Khan said:
klystron said:
RedInker said:

 

The argument is not rather.  The argument is whether or not taxes need to be raised or not.  Even Obama agreed to budget cuts.  He even agreed to more, if the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire on income $250,000 or greater.

There is an issue now with tax revenues, due to the economic slowdown.  As a percentage of GDP, tax revenues are lowest in decades. 

Except that's not REALLY the issue.

Tax Revenue as a  percentage of GDP is lower then it's ever been.

This is largely due to the fact that government is a larger percentage of GDP then it's been.  Meaning taxable income is a lower percentage of GDP.

Government Receipts now are higher then they were in 2005... so it's not really lagging behind as much as you would think.  

If you jack up government spending, tax receipts as a percentage of GDP will decrease... even if tax receipts and every other single part of the economy stays the same.

 

If you only let the Bush Tax cuts expire... we surpass 2007 level taxes... by 12% in 2013.  At 2,900 Billion.

Tax receipts at the end of Clinton's era were only 1,900 Billion. (2005 was 2153 billion fyi.)

This is misleading too. Government spending as a percent of GDP has not changed that much in the last 50 years, except a recent spike following the housing crash...

Interestingly enough, prior to the current crisis, government spending as percentage of GDP was the highest during the Reagan Presidency ( you know the guy every GOP candidates workships for reigning in government....)

 

How is that misleading?  Tax revenue was at normal levels until the spike following the housing crash.  Tax reciepts in 2008 were actually normal as a percentage of GDP. 

"Real income per capital" is at the same level it was 10 years ago... meaning tax receipts and government spending should roughly be around that level, slightly increased due to population increases.

In 2001 we had 148,000,000 workers.  2011.  157,000,000  So that's a 6% increase.

 

So in 2001, the "balanced deficit' year... we had federal receipts of 1991 billion.  And spending of  1862 billion.

a 6% increase means we should roughly be at....

2110 Billion in taxes and 1973 billion in spending.

In 2011 we had 2303.5 in taxes, and 3606 billion in spending.

 

So... taxes are above expectations... and spending should be cut by more then half.