Socialism in America
The Tax Foundation’s 2007 Tax Foundation analysis of federal, state and local taxes and government spending for 1991 through 2004.
We find households in the lowest quintile of income received roughly $8.21 in federal, state and local government spending for every dollar of taxes paid in 2004, while households in the middle quintile received $1.30, and households in the top quintile received $0.41. Overall, tax payments exceeded government spending received for the top two quintiles of income, resulting in a net fiscal transfer of between $1.031 trillion and $1.527 trillion between quintiles. Both taxes and spending appear to have large distributional effects on households, and these effects have grown since 1991. The results suggest tax distributions alone are an inadequate measure of progressivity, and policymakers should examine both tax and spending distributions when judging the overall fairness of policy toward income groups.
Sound fair? No, I didn’t think so. Wanna know which quintile your household fits into?
| Bottom 20% | Earns less than $23,700 |
| Second 20% | $23,700 to $42,299 |
| Third 20% | $42,300 to $65,000 |
| Fourth 20% | $65,001 to 99,502 |
| Top 20% | Earns more than $99,502 |
If you can’t read the whole thing, check out the executive summary. A couple of charts I extracted really bring things home:
As we’ve seen above, government taxes and spending redistribute between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion between the five quintiles of household income each year. This fact is not apparent by looking at the tax system alone. For this reason, it’s important for Americans to look beyond the distribution of only taxes and start counting government spending received as well. Only by counting both can we give an accurate judgment about what government policies are doing for different income groups in America.
To show just how big “Big Government” has become, the Tax Foundation says that the the $3.5 trillion of total government spending about 30 percent of the 2004 U.S. economy, which is larger than the combined GDP of Canada, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary and New Zealand in 2004.
How did we let this happen?
this is the core disease now “doctor(s)” lets find the cure! not the “treatment” presently prescribed above!
I truly believe that tax reform is a must.New legislation is needed to bring the IRS to its Knees.A recently printed article Printed by the Da Vinci Institute adresses this in a very logical way I strongly recommend that anyone interested in tax reform visit their website and read what thier futurists predict
This is the government’s way of punishing those who work to create value. You create value, and those lazy lousy rotten stupid good-for-nothing bums that sit home and collect food stamps can live off our backs. And this, coupled with endless regulations, effectively cuts off incentive to work and create some values. Thanks a bunch, Mr Value-Killer Abe Lincoln!
As a relative of Fred Thompson’s I can only say… IT’S ABOUT TIME! Go get em Fred! Honest information like this article, could and would change a lot of voter’s minds… People who think that they are “happy” with the current system, simply because they don’t understand how truly opressive and socialistic it has become. Once their eyes have been opened, we would have a decent shot at some meaningful reform.
I’m with you kid. We also need to de-politicalize our government. Get rid of regulating agencies too.