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n .Why not pull out of Europe? We've been defending them since WWII. Of course they might all start squabbling again; that could cost even more.
But a paltry 21% of 660-ish billion isn't anywhere close to making up the gap.
Why not stop spending money on stupid stuff that makes people worse off, like green jobs, union bailouts, car company take overs, buying people houses, more efficient SUVs, and so forth?
As I said, my figure was for federal income tax. It's not the latest figure, but it's close enough.
You still aren't doing the math. Expenditures were ~$3.6 T. That's a mighty big hole to fill.
It doesn't help anyone if the government goes broke. Even Andy Stern (ex-SEIU boss) sees that.
"People are trying to approach this without the traditional Democratic- Republican, left-right perspectives," Stern said. "I've never seen a more sober, responsible conversation in Washington. Everybody wonders, will there be a moment when that all changes? Will the elections in November, will the need to make some pretty hard decisions, change all that?" No one is ruling it out, he said, but in the meantime, "there are lots of conversations going on that are not normal in Washington."
That may be because the fiscal state of the nation is not normal. The Obama administration projects the annual budget deficit will reach $1.47 trillion for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The accumulated national debt is now over $13 trillion; last year we paid $202 billion in interest on the debt and that could rise to more than $700 billion in 2019. The huge numbers are beginning to unnerve voters, and the politicians who need them.
-- Cheers, James Arthur