I attended Congressman Dan Burton’s (R-IN 5th) town hall in Carmel this past evening and was pleased to hear him reference some cooperative efforts he has with Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) but he said something very early on in his talk about U.S. fiscal matters that caught my attention.
He made a statement basically saying that interest on the debt consumed 46 cents out of every tax dollar and that they then had only around 54 cents to spend on everything else like the military, social security, etc… Immediately this struck me as untrue but I knew he likely didn’t pull that number out of thin air. But, it did get me to thinking and I worked out the math on the back of one of his political flyers.
We are quickly approaching the point where annual debt service is around $500 billion (one half trillion dollars).
The Federal government budget is around $3.6 to $3.7 trillion.
Federal tax receipts are in the $2.15 trillion area.
Of that $2.2 trillion, a little less than $1 trillion is Personal Income Taxes.
So, interest payment on the debt, will likely run well over $450 billion for the current fiscal year.
$450 billion is:
…about 12% of the total Federal budget.
…about 21% of all expected 2011 Federal tax receipts.
…about 46% of all expected 2011 Federal PERSONAL INCOME taxes.
So, there you have it. Out of every dollar in PERSONAL INCOME TAXES almost half of it now goes solely to pay interest on the national debt. So, the only error the Congressman made was in not being specific enough in his language. He was, basically, correct in his statement. Anybody with two brain cells to rub together still need a wake up call?
The Federal Government is too big and it costs too much. Repeat until it sinks in.
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