Where the Money Comes From and Where it Goes in our National Budget Really good graph...

[2naSalit]

Merely for those who might be interested:


?w=940&h=2066


http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/04/back-from-the-brink-the-united-states-fiscal-situation-in-2013/

[JDPriestly]

1. Too little revenue from corporate taxes.

It's sad that we get so little from corporations.

[2naSalit]

2. Indeed

That was the first thing I noticed, the second was the DoD expenses.

This graph should go viral.

Oddly, this came out of Canada. More increasingly I find that most of the actual news about our country comes from some place else. Most of my foreign friends have told me, for decades now, that if you want to know what's really going on in the US, you have to consult foreign news services. And now it's getting harder to be able to rely on services like the BBC as they are pretty tainted with the standard jaundiced view of anything beyond the propaganda these days. Thanks to Rupert Murdoch no doubt.

[Agschmid]

3. Okay so yah...

I get that you both saw corporate taxes and defense as the big things but you cannot look at that chart and logically say that we did *enough* with healthcare reform. We MUST reduce our healthcare costs, from just a quick glance it seems to be growing more rapidly than any other segment of our spending.

Ugh I wish Congress would take action to address these issues, I'd love to have a fiscal surplus at some point in the next 5 years or so. It would make me happier.

On Edit: Thank you for posting this I really like it.

[2naSalit]

4. I agree

My purpose in posting this was to illustrate what is wrong with our budgetary priorities. I agree that the medical industrial complex has us by the short-hairs as much as the military industrial complex and it is facilitated by the petrochem industry via drugs and shit that they grow and preserve our industrialized foods with. So when people start realizing that they have to start refusing to feed those beasts and take control over their well-being (and get their heads out of the digital mind control device world) then we can make a change... or we can wait for larger catastrophic events to take a bunch of us out such that there won't be a large enough population to work in those industries and that basic survival is al we can do... Hope it doesn't come to that but what scenarios can one imagine if we keep careening down the path of destruction we're on?

[Filibuster Harry]

5. Everyone needs to see, read, and understand this graph. Excellent. So many questions and so many

possible solutions. 10% reduction across the board spending cuts reduces spending by $380 billion. Maybe additional defense cuts?? Need to get a hold on health care costs. How about those subsidies? I presume the farm subsidies are in dept of agriculture but where are the oil subsidies? Get rid of corporate tax loopholes and reduce the top rate to 25%. Needed that estate tax exemption to go down to 3.5 mill instead of at 5 mill.

In hopes that the economy can get stronger later this year need spending cuts reduced by say $ 600 billion and additional revenues of $ 300 billion?? or any combination??

[2naSalit]

6. Indeed.

We the People need to get a grip on this reality. The farm subsidies, BTW, are in the Dept of AG and need to be reevaluated since a bunch of the Congressional animals, like Ms. Bachman for one, get hundreds of thousands for some reason when they are not even engaged in agricultural pursuits. My Congressional delegation is entirely wrapped up in it and too many agribusiness corporations are also reaping subsidies that should be going elsewhere... just to mention a few more problems with the entire budget. The USFS is also bundled into the Dept of AG and there are some major give-aways there too.

[Cresent City Kid]

7. This should be in textbooks

The budget is huge and complex, but it all comes down to proportions that can be displayed and absorbed readily with this image. Personally, I'm struck by the disparity between the spending on having the wars (or being overprepared for ones we'll never have) in relation to the VA's spending on mending the damaged lives. In general, I know many who rail blindly at the budget assuming everything is going to things they hate like welfare and foriegn aid.

Thanks for this.

[Dragonfli]

8. It lumps the general budget together with SS

One has nothing to do with the other, this is an old Republican trick.

[2naSalit]

9. I have to admit that

I noticed that and was not comfortable with that aspect of it, though the thing I was more focused on was the paltry amount spent on things like the EPA and Education and the stuff that gets so little that it's not wonder we are failing ourselves, and the behemoth of the DoD spending... and how little comes in from the corporate wealth. You do have a very valid point though.