Some key facts from :Fact Check" for you to consider.

* Federal spending ("outlays" in budget jargon) is expected to equal 24.1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The figure was 25 percent in fiscal year 2009, highest since 1945.
* On the other hand, federal revenues are expected to drop to 14.8 percent of GDP this year, lower even than the 14.9 percent attained in both 2009 and 2010. There has been only one year since World War II when revenues have been as low as in any of these years: 1950, when the figure was 14.4 percent.
* These historically high rates of spending and low rates of taxation have combined to produce a chain of deficits that are also the highest since WWII. The deficit was 10.0 percent of GDP in fiscal 2009. It declined to 8.9 percent last year as the economy started to recover, but is projected to go up to over 9 percent this year. Each of these deficits is larger than in any year since 1945, measured as a percentage of GDP.
* The U.S. is borrowing about 36 cents of every dollar spent so far this year. It borrowed 37 cents on the dollar last year, and 40 cents in fiscal 2009.
* The largest components of federal spending are Social Security and Medicare programs for the elderly (33.5 percent of total outlays in 2010) and national defense (20.1 percent). Interest payments on the federal debt alone accounted for 5.7 percent of all federal spending, and that percentage is rising.
* The federal income tax accounted for 41.5 percent of federal receipts in 2010 (down from 49.6 percent prior to the Bush tax cuts of 2001 – 2003). Corporate taxes brought in only 8.9 percent, also down sharply since the recent recession. Payroll taxes and other "social insurance" payments accounted for 40 percent of total receipts in 2010.

It's easy to argue one side or the other by just citing facts that support a particular view, and omitting others. In the Analysis that follows, we offer some graphics, details and documentation in an attempt to give our readers a quick look at the entire picture — both where the money goes, and where it comes from.

http://factcheck.org/2011/07/fiscal-factcheck/

I only wish our media would present things in the same way!

I don't mean the solution to the problem, but the solution to getting the word out.

all the lw radio hosts & HOPE THEY can push it! We need a bigger microphone and they're the only ones I know!

has any thing to do with it



just makes me sick to here RATpubliCONs defending that

Why should Republicans have to defend the decline in manufacturing jobs? They just blame the Unions. You know, if the American workers weren't so greedy, we would have plenty of jobs here.

They can also blame the environmentalists. You know, if the darn tree huggers weren't putting all these restrictive regulations in place, free enterprise would flourish.

And they are right. If factory workers were willing to slave 10 hours a day, 6 days a week to barely eke out a living; if the factories themselves didn't have to worry about creating a "safe" environment; if factories were free to dump unlimited toxic waste...

Oh, and if you think that's what we have now, you're wrong. Look at how it was a hundred years ago. We're headed back that way, but aren't there yet.

They don't NEED workers anymore. We've done the work of developing automation for the planet, and it's now just an available technique.

You do notice that those taxes are listed separately on your W-2, right? Why do you suppose that is?

like the two wars that are off-budget, and disaster relief. And juggling expenses and revenues between years. That's how Federal budgets are balanced, and any private company pulling the tricks in past Federal budgets would be jailed.

Social Security money is supposedly locked away in an untouchable trust that should be OK for the next 30 years or so, but there are doubts about just how untouchable that trust is. Medicare, although theoretically in a separate accounting, is in obvious trouble right now. Medicaid and all other social programs come out of general revenues.

I've always liked the idea of just adding up all the checks the gummint writes every year and comparing them to revenues. Then work out how things are being paid. If SS is really being paid out of a trust rather than general revenues, account for that but let us know.

of the money going in is SS and Medicare payroll tax. 33 percent of the money going out are benefits. Guess what happens to the rest.