Wow! Republicans pass bill, bypassing Biden, to limit Federal spending increases to just 1% per annum for the next ten years – plus lots more “fiscal responsibility”
From here:
“.. reduces the growth of government spending by capping it at 1% per year for the next 10 years.
It also saves taxpayers money by clawing back unspent COVID funds, as well as instituting work requirements to help Americans get jobs and rebuild the nation’s supply chain. Additionally, the bill cuts red tape to enable more infrastructure projects, as well as reduces IRS agents by 87,000.”
Capping spending at 1% for the fiscal year to 30 September 2023, would mean a real reduction of 4% in government spending assuming the US CPI index remains at its current 5% level to 31 March 2023.
Here are some numbers for the last seven years. Note this is Federal spending and excludes State, City and Local spending.
Federal Spending | U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data
Annual Federal spending up by 1.67 trillion – equal to an increase of 6.66% of 2022 GDP (interesting number!).
Ah, but what about taxes I hear you say. After all, the sole objective of socialism is to increase taxes until as many people as possible are equally poor.
Using the same source, we have this:
Annual spending up 1.67 trillion, revenue up by half that amount at 0.85 trillion bucks.
No change in Corporate income taxes – all extra profits offset by losses everywhere else.
Social Security and Medicare Taxes up 11% in the last seven years, but here’s the kicker, Individual Income Taxes up by a whopping 37%. I wonder what the split is in extra taxes paid by Democrats and Republicans.
Of course, a better comparison would be to adjust the numbers by the 11% growth in GDP over the last seven years as well. After all, if you haven’t killed the golden goose and it is getting fatter, things must be a little better. GDP is a measure of activity, not income. Changes up or down in GDP reflect those changes in activity,
It is a crying shame that it is impossible for politicians to actually refrain from taking the people’s money and blowing it on corrupt, pork-barrel, politics and vote buying. People are best qualified to figure out what to spend their own money on – governments, invariably, turn a dollar into 90 cents and blow it on “policies” that make people poorer, sicker and “stupider”.
Onwards!
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A footnote in history.
Yes, but it will never become law. It won't pass the Senate and Biden has vowed to veto. So where's the victory, except in the hollows?