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How much do you pay each year on the Federal level to help the pours?
YellowSnow
Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 35,396 
in Tug Tavern
Chinteresting site here where you can enter how much you paid in Federal Income Tax in 2017 and get an itemized breakdown of where each dollar went: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/
I determined that about 26% of our family's Federal tax bill went to wealth transfer payments. Or looking at it another way, about 3.9% of our taxable income went towards helping the pours on a Federal level.
Following are the programs I considered to be means-tested, transfer payments.
Health
*Medicaid
*Children's Health Insurance Program
Unemployment and Labor
* Earned Income Tax Credit
* Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
* Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
Veterans Benefits
* Income Support
Food and Agriculture
*SNAP (food stamps)
*School Lunch & other food programs
Education
*Federal Student Aid
Housing and Community
*Affordable Housing Programs
I left off Medicare although undoubtedly there is some wealth transfer going on here- i.e., old people collectively receiving more in benefits from the program than they paid into the system in payroll taxes.
I determined that about 26% of our family's Federal tax bill went to wealth transfer payments. Or looking at it another way, about 3.9% of our taxable income went towards helping the pours on a Federal level.
Following are the programs I considered to be means-tested, transfer payments.
Health
*Medicaid
*Children's Health Insurance Program
Unemployment and Labor
* Earned Income Tax Credit
* Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
* Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
Veterans Benefits
* Income Support
Food and Agriculture
*SNAP (food stamps)
*School Lunch & other food programs
Education
*Federal Student Aid
Housing and Community
*Affordable Housing Programs
I left off Medicare although undoubtedly there is some wealth transfer going on here- i.e., old people collectively receiving more in benefits from the program than they paid into the system in payroll taxes.
Comments
tell the pour to get to work! this is american, not sweden.
I don't do my giving on the street corner to get rewarded by man. I give in secret so my Father in heaven can reward me
Here's a honest question @RaceBannon , as a someone who voted for Obama in 2008, were you concerned at the time about him raising your taxes and what not? I mean, what was the calculus here?
Unlike the idiots here other than you and me I understand that there is a sweet spot on taxation both individual and corporate that stokes the economy and I vote accordingly
We will never tax ourselves to a balanced budget so it isn't even a concern. Neither party will cut spending to get us balanced so that is a pipe dream as well.
The only positive is that I have been hearing about the dangers of the debt for 50 years and yet here we are. As long as we run the world our debt doesn't matter. When we fall the debt will be the least of our concerns anyway
I don't get my economic advice from HBO comedians or burger flippers either
Trump has done a very good job on the economy so far and that only adds to the derangement which is nice.
Some polls have him closing in in 30% approval among Blacks which is pretty much the apocalypse for the democrats
Its my money that I earn with my hard work is my calculus.
Be a good neighbor and give of your income to help others. What you send to DC is flushed down the crapper
I think the risk from Clinton / Obama type dems to raise taxes on the upper income brackets has always been overstated. Yes, they were going to raise them some, but there's a limit to how much the college educated, upper income, donor class dems are willing to pony up to help the pours. Bernie and the DSA are a different story, of course.
Re: the debt, it's obviously true that in the past 50 years, Deficits have not mattered and we have the benefit from borrowing and paying interest in the debt in our own currency (this is YUGE). But I think it's wrong to think that they (deficits) will NEVER matter. At some point the markets will intervene. But at that point we'd be taking the rest of the world down with us.
I'm skeptical that charitable giving alone either to secular or religious organizations alone could ever be enough to help the needy based on our society at present. It did, of course, from 1789 to 1933 but that's a by gone era. The biggest flaw in our current welfare state is that we do a really shitty job of sorting out who truly needs assistance and who is a lazy bum. The disincentives towards work are a major problem.
You mean like the Oregon State income tax Game?
Clearly that didn't work.