Peter1469
02-10-2016, 08:23 PM
70% Of Obama’s Budget Is Writing Checks To Individuals (http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/70-of-obamas-budget-is-writing-checks-to-individuals/)
Investor's Business Daily takes a deeper look at Obama's staggering budget ($4.1T).
What is the federal government’s most important function these days? Based on the Obama budget released today, it’s not defense, or roads, or education, or the environment. It’s cutting checks.
***
In other words, more than 70% of federal spending amounts to taking money from one set of pockets, and depositing it in another.
***
The problem is that with 70% of the budget composed of vast money transfer programs, cutting federal spending becomes increasingly difficult. If you want to make a meaningful dent in the size of the government, you’ll almost certainly have to cut the size of some of these individual government checks.
At the same time, most of the tax revenues are paid by an increasingly smaller share of wealthy. The top 5% now pay 58% of federal income taxes, according to the IRS, while the bottom half pay only 2.8%.
That means there will always be pressure to hand out even bigger checks to the masses, and send the bills to the “rich,” which is precisely what Obama’s budget proposes, and what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders want to turbocharge should they get elected.
But as Margaret Thatcher so aptly noted about socialism, “eventually you run out of other people’s money.” That day is fast approaching here.
Investor's Business Daily takes a deeper look at Obama's staggering budget ($4.1T).
What is the federal government’s most important function these days? Based on the Obama budget released today, it’s not defense, or roads, or education, or the environment. It’s cutting checks.
***
In other words, more than 70% of federal spending amounts to taking money from one set of pockets, and depositing it in another.
***
The problem is that with 70% of the budget composed of vast money transfer programs, cutting federal spending becomes increasingly difficult. If you want to make a meaningful dent in the size of the government, you’ll almost certainly have to cut the size of some of these individual government checks.
At the same time, most of the tax revenues are paid by an increasingly smaller share of wealthy. The top 5% now pay 58% of federal income taxes, according to the IRS, while the bottom half pay only 2.8%.
That means there will always be pressure to hand out even bigger checks to the masses, and send the bills to the “rich,” which is precisely what Obama’s budget proposes, and what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders want to turbocharge should they get elected.
But as Margaret Thatcher so aptly noted about socialism, “eventually you run out of other people’s money.” That day is fast approaching here.