I wonder what this would look like if we had the tax system of the 1960s.
I recall that the top end rates were higher, not sure if it would make much of a difference.
We are so f*cked no matter which party is running things. I voted for Harris but she could not have fixed this. But she wouldn’t have made it so much worse, like has happened.
Reminds me of the ratios of a certain Atlantic City casino.
530B corporate income tax?
let’s break down the national defense bracket please.
How is “wealth and savings” a category of outflowing dollars?
Medicare (including the Obamacare subsidies) collects 400 billion and spends 2 trillion.
Think about that for a second folks. The government gave people that we dont know $6.8 trillion of our own money…just last year alone.
And people still worship political parties that steal their money and give it away to their friends and family…$6.8 trillion per year…
And people can’t figure out how the wealth gap keeps increasing. 🙄
Anyone else think its absolutely bonkers that corporate income tax is so small?
That corporate income tax line looks pretty small compared to what we are paying….
Why is the interest on the debt in the “wealth and savings” category? Net interest should be its own category.
We need a true moderately progressive income tax and high corporate taxes. Even 0.5% would probably put us in the green. If a businesses margin can’t afford 0.5% then it’s not a good business
Careful, you might accidentally educate people who think the govt spends 50%+ of the budget on the military.
The top 400 wealthiest individuals in the US have a combined wealth of $6.5+ Trillion.
To reduce our deficit, ONLY 400 people need to be impacted for the better of over 300million people. TAX.THE.RICH. Like, this is common sense policy. If that wealth was to transfer to the middle class, we’d see a tangible economic boom that would ripple down for decades, and not just the short term.
Maybe the government could you know figure out a way through you know the power of the government to control healthcare costs thus lowering medicare spending? We’re spending more money on Medicare per capita than people who support their entire population with healthcare. Why isn’t this the #1 priority? It would cut the deficit substantially.
And people will still look at this and say k-12 schools are the problem.
I’ll just say those spending categories are… weird. Health care spending, the federal government’s largest expense, is spread all over the place.
Maybe they should buy fewer lattes.
Something I’ve noticed as a visitor to the US … booze and tobacco is really cheap. The federal govt could raise substantial revenue by taxing it.
In NZ the govt raises $1.5 billion annually from tax on tobacco and almost the same from alcohol. That’s from a population of only 5 million. There is further revenue from gambling taxes.
If the federal govt legalised cannabis, they could tax that too.
Interest payments are MORE than we spend on the entire military. Let that sink in.
We need to raise tax revenue.
Ideas:
1) Increase % of funds collected from estate and gift taxes. Did you know the tax-exempt amount threshold is $15 Million for singles and 30 Million for couples? Ridiculous. 95% tax on everything over $1M on assets, sorry not sorry.
2) Lift the salary cap on contributions to Social Security. For 2025 it is $176,100.There should be no cap, sorry not sorry.
3) We need to increase some Medicare payments. Right now Dr. visits are $5. Increase to $15. What is that effect? I think that is still low cost. That or we move everybody to a single payer system that is lower than commercial premiums out of pocket maxes (bye bye insurance companies), and then maybe (maybe!) increase income taxes.
4) I think we need to determine how to reduce the Social Security payments to ultra wealthy boomers (everybody with >2M or things like gas royalties or real estate income in the 100s of thousands). If you don’t need the Social Security to survive, you shouldn’t get it. Rich boomers are destituting the nation. Sorry not sorry.
5) Double Corporate Tax Rate
6) Federal Property tax that is double the state tax on second homes, and at a minimum annual amount of 5% value of the home for states that have no property tax. Triple this tax or minimum 10% home value for homes owned by private institutions / investment firms.
7) Reduce profit/fee % to 10% max on all negotiated federal contracts including on new contract modifications to existing awards, with the exception that incentives for finishing infrastructure projects early that are verified to meet all technical, safety, and quality standards may exceed this % limit via incentive payments.
US Citizens are the lions share of the Tax Revenue, while Corporations are the lions share of the Profits.
* Over 4T$ in Taxes collected from US Individuals/Families – with a 2023 Medium income of about $80K
* But only .5T$ collected from all US Corporations – with a 2023 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 27 Trillion Dollars
And Elon/Trump, proved the problem isnt inefficient spending. We fixed a crap load of that in the 80-90s and havent really added massive programs without funding, expect medicare plan D under bush and no child left behind under bush.
the problem is since the 80s we have been constantly cutting the top brackets income tax rate.
We are the biggest economy on the planet and we pretend to be poor.. and thats on purpose, as part of “starve the beast”, where republicans want to run up debt and deficits and get our interest payments way high, so the people will let them kill medicare. They said they would do this. Told us they would do this and every republican admin has exploded the deficits in good times. Biden deficit got real high but we had a pandemic, other than that, dems cut the deficits, republicans explode it.
Reminder that taxes do not finance Federally budgeted items. While there are exceptions like social security, the government spends money into existence for congressionally budgeted line items and then taxes it out later to control inflation. Governments that issue debt in their own currency do not follow “common sense” household economic dynamics.
Welfare for the wealthy is the missing part
Those making 90% of the income pay 71% of the taxes. Very easy fix
![The US federal government spent $6.8 trillion and collected $4.9 trillion in FY 2024 [OC]](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/1758833777_8a5na40r0crf1.png)
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Source: USAFacts aggregation of data from Office of Management and Budget, Census Bureau, and Bureau of Economic Analysis
Tools: Illustrator
Note: The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. Charts are shown to scale for comparison. Numbers may not add due to rounding.
This Sankey chart was pulled from [this report](https://usafacts.org/research-and-initiatives/reports/america-in-facts/) we send to Congress every year.
No worry guys, the fiscal responsibility party is going to fix this /s.
If this Sankey looks familiar, it’s likely for a couple of reasons:
1. I post an updated version of this every year
2. Those charts always seem to have a noticeable deficit section on the bottom left
Last year (FY 2024) that deficit was $1.8 trillion, resulting from the federal government collected $4.9 trillion and spending $6.8 trillion.
If this Sankey look unfamiliar, it could be because:
1. You didn’t see those other posts
2. We changed up our data viz color pallette recently
Let me know what you think about the viz, federal spending, or any easy way to balance the budget.
But it’s the US subsidizing everyone else, not everyone else lending the US the dosh to keep running…
I feel like a second chart with social security removed would also be useful as it acts as a mostly independent system
Fiat currency isn’t even real. It’s a ponzi scheme.
The value of tangible goods is around 10% of the circulating money supply.
[US tariff revenue expected to be $250-350B in 2026, about half the size of the corporate tax revenue line above. ](https://www.crfb.org/blogs/tariffs-are-generating-meaningful-new-revenue#:~:text=Monthly%20tariff%20revenue%20has%20grown,$3.1%20trillion%20through%20FY%202035)
[The OBBB will also reduce income tax revenue by $570B in 2026 compared to doing nothing. ](https://itep.org/how-will-trump-megabill-change-americans-taxes-in-2026/#:~:text=As%20ITEP%20has%20previously%20found,happen%20if%20Congress%20did%20nothing)
I wonder what this would look like if we had the tax system of the 1960s.
I recall that the top end rates were higher, not sure if it would make much of a difference.
We are so f*cked no matter which party is running things. I voted for Harris but she could not have fixed this. But she wouldn’t have made it so much worse, like has happened.
Reminds me of the ratios of a certain Atlantic City casino.
530B corporate income tax?
let’s break down the national defense bracket please.
How is “wealth and savings” a category of outflowing dollars?
Medicare (including the Obamacare subsidies) collects 400 billion and spends 2 trillion.
Think about that for a second folks. The government gave people that we dont know $6.8 trillion of our own money…just last year alone.
And people still worship political parties that steal their money and give it away to their friends and family…$6.8 trillion per year…
And people can’t figure out how the wealth gap keeps increasing. 🙄
Anyone else think its absolutely bonkers that corporate income tax is so small?
That corporate income tax line looks pretty small compared to what we are paying….
Why is the interest on the debt in the “wealth and savings” category? Net interest should be its own category.
We need a true moderately progressive income tax and high corporate taxes. Even 0.5% would probably put us in the green. If a businesses margin can’t afford 0.5% then it’s not a good business
Careful, you might accidentally educate people who think the govt spends 50%+ of the budget on the military.
The top 400 wealthiest individuals in the US have a combined wealth of $6.5+ Trillion.
To reduce our deficit, ONLY 400 people need to be impacted for the better of over 300million people. TAX.THE.RICH. Like, this is common sense policy. If that wealth was to transfer to the middle class, we’d see a tangible economic boom that would ripple down for decades, and not just the short term.
Maybe the government could you know figure out a way through you know the power of the government to control healthcare costs thus lowering medicare spending? We’re spending more money on Medicare per capita than people who support their entire population with healthcare. Why isn’t this the #1 priority? It would cut the deficit substantially.
And people will still look at this and say k-12 schools are the problem.
I’ll just say those spending categories are… weird. Health care spending, the federal government’s largest expense, is spread all over the place.
Maybe they should buy fewer lattes.
Something I’ve noticed as a visitor to the US … booze and tobacco is really cheap. The federal govt could raise substantial revenue by taxing it.
In NZ the govt raises $1.5 billion annually from tax on tobacco and almost the same from alcohol. That’s from a population of only 5 million. There is further revenue from gambling taxes.
If the federal govt legalised cannabis, they could tax that too.
Interest payments are MORE than we spend on the entire military. Let that sink in.
We need to raise tax revenue.
Ideas:
1) Increase % of funds collected from estate and gift taxes. Did you know the tax-exempt amount threshold is $15 Million for singles and 30 Million for couples? Ridiculous. 95% tax on everything over $1M on assets, sorry not sorry.
2) Lift the salary cap on contributions to Social Security. For 2025 it is $176,100.There should be no cap, sorry not sorry.
3) We need to increase some Medicare payments. Right now Dr. visits are $5. Increase to $15. What is that effect? I think that is still low cost. That or we move everybody to a single payer system that is lower than commercial premiums out of pocket maxes (bye bye insurance companies), and then maybe (maybe!) increase income taxes.
4) I think we need to determine how to reduce the Social Security payments to ultra wealthy boomers (everybody with >2M or things like gas royalties or real estate income in the 100s of thousands). If you don’t need the Social Security to survive, you shouldn’t get it. Rich boomers are destituting the nation. Sorry not sorry.
5) Double Corporate Tax Rate
6) Federal Property tax that is double the state tax on second homes, and at a minimum annual amount of 5% value of the home for states that have no property tax. Triple this tax or minimum 10% home value for homes owned by private institutions / investment firms.
7) Reduce profit/fee % to 10% max on all negotiated federal contracts including on new contract modifications to existing awards, with the exception that incentives for finishing infrastructure projects early that are verified to meet all technical, safety, and quality standards may exceed this % limit via incentive payments.
US Citizens are the lions share of the Tax Revenue, while Corporations are the lions share of the Profits.
* Over 4T$ in Taxes collected from US Individuals/Families – with a 2023 Medium income of about $80K
* But only .5T$ collected from all US Corporations – with a 2023 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 27 Trillion Dollars
And Elon/Trump, proved the problem isnt inefficient spending. We fixed a crap load of that in the 80-90s and havent really added massive programs without funding, expect medicare plan D under bush and no child left behind under bush.
the problem is since the 80s we have been constantly cutting the top brackets income tax rate.
We are the biggest economy on the planet and we pretend to be poor.. and thats on purpose, as part of “starve the beast”, where republicans want to run up debt and deficits and get our interest payments way high, so the people will let them kill medicare. They said they would do this. Told us they would do this and every republican admin has exploded the deficits in good times. Biden deficit got real high but we had a pandemic, other than that, dems cut the deficits, republicans explode it.
Reminder that taxes do not finance Federally budgeted items. While there are exceptions like social security, the government spends money into existence for congressionally budgeted line items and then taxes it out later to control inflation. Governments that issue debt in their own currency do not follow “common sense” household economic dynamics.
Welfare for the wealthy is the missing part
Those making 90% of the income pay 71% of the taxes. Very easy fix
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