I decided to look at our Nation's government spending and revenues and see how we might reduce spending, boost income and help to get the country out of "hock".
I found these two great graphics in Time this week, which break down spending and revenues to an understandable level.
There it is, can't be simpler We're spending $3,800,000,000.00 ($3.8 trillion)
and We're earning $2,500,000,000.00 ($2.5 trillion)
$1,300,000,000.00 Overbudget !!!
So let's take a small look at each of these individual items and see where we could help to solve the budget. Based on some of my prior research three items immediately deserve attention;
- Medicare $485,000,000,000 (costs $485 billion/year)
- Defense $716,000,000,000 (costs $716 billion/year)
- Corporate Income Taxes $237,000,000,000 (earns $237 billion/year)
Defense Spending
$716 billion/year is more than the next 15 countries in the world COMBINED! Check out the top 9 spenders from this Wikopedia chart below;| Rank | Country | Spending ($ Bn.)[1] | % of GDP | World share (%) | Spending ($ Bn. PPP)[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | World total | 1,735 | 2.5 | 100 | 1562.3 |
| 1 |  United States |
711.0 | 4.7 | 41 | 711 |
| 2 |  Chinay |
143.0 | 2.0 | 8.2 | 228 |
| 3 |  Russiay |
71.9 | 3.9 | 4.1 | 93.7 |
| 4 |  United Kingdom |
62.7 | 2.6 | 3.6 | 57.5 |
| 5 |  France |
62.5 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 50.1 |
| 6 |  Japan |
59.3 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 44.7 |
| 7 |  Saudi Arabiaz |
48.2 | 8.7 | 2.8 | 58.8 |
| 8 |  India |
46.8 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 112 |
| 9 |  Germanyy |
46.7 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 40.4 |
How about we trim defense spending to similar % of GDP number ($360 billion) or just twice as much as China, our latest 'enemy' ($285 billion).
Cool that's;
$716 - $285 = $431,000,000,000 ($431 billion/year SAVED)
Medicare Spending
The government's $485 billions dollars spending is a small! percentage of the total healthcare spending in the country, over $2.5 trillion/year (17% of GDP). Using another great chart from Wikopedia shows that we spend far more for healthcare that is considered worse than many other countries in the world.Acknowledging that the rating of best healthcare is admittedly subjective, France has the world's best healthcare (#1 at $3,978 year) and our rating (#37 at $7,900/year) is below Cuba's at (#36 at $280/year).
| Rank | Country | Total health expenditure per capita PPP US$ |
Total health expenditure % of GDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States |
7,960 | 17.4 |
| 2 |  Norway |
5,352 | 9.6 |
| 3 |  Switzerland |
5,144 | 11.4 |
| 4 |  Netherlands |
4,914 | 12.0 |
| 5 |  Luxembourg |
4,808 | 7.8 |
| 6 |  Canada |
4,363 | 11.4 |
| 7 |  Denmark |
4,348 | 11.5 |
| 8 |  Austria |
4,289 | 11.0 |
| 9 | Germany |
4,218 | 11.6 |
| 10 | France |
3,978 | 11.8 |
How about we just trim our healthcare costs to what most western "1st world's nations" spend or about 12% instead of 17%.
2010 Healthcare costs (17%) = $ 2,500,000,000,000 ($2.5 trillion)
2010 GDP = $14,447,100,000,000 ($14.45 Trillion)
X 12% = $ 1,733,000,000,000 ($1.73 trillion)
SAVES $ 817,000,000,000 ($817 billion/year)
I'm not quite sure how much of this is medicare healthcare cost reduction, but it's over twice the total medicare budget so that has to mean something. How about we just take the 12% vs 17% (or 30%) percentage reduction of costs.
Cool that's another;
$485 billion X 30% = $145,000,000,000 ($145 billion/year SAVED)
Corporate Income Taxes
There's a couple things about corporate income tax that stand out to me. First off corporate taxes are no where near the top taxable rate of 35% that you always hear of. They are more closely xx% mostly because of deductions & other loopholes. Secondly I believe that our rates are a historic lows and also quite low by world standards. Let's check it out, check it out with another Wikopedia reference;So this was a harder graphic to find, but let's use it.
If approximate US corporate taxes PER GDP is currently 2.0%. Why not raise it to 3.0% where it existed in the 60s & 70s. That would be;
Cool that'd be another;
$14.5 trillion X 3% - $237 billion = $200,000,000,000 ($200 billion/year EARNED)
So in conclusion for today, that's;
- Medicare $145,000,000,000 (saves $145 billion/year)
- Defense $431,000,000,000 (saves $431 billion/year)
- Corporate Income Taxes $200,000,000,000 (earns $200 billion/year)
