Reference no: EM131020555

The source of tax revenue overwhelmingly comes from individuals at 50.3%, with employment taxes accounting for another 38%, transfer and excise taxes at 2.8%, and corporations paying only 8.8% (yes, corporations only a small percentages of our taxes). The expenses of the government are split between mandatory spending at 65%, Interest on the debt at 6%, and discretionary spending at 29%. The actual cost of running our government is quite low at less that 1% of the total budget - cutting down on the number of federal workers barely makes a dent on the budget. The U.S government also pays out less on social benefits (social security, welfare, etc.) that it collects from the sources that are supposed to fund these expenditures. Instead of saving the money collected for social benefits for the future, the government diverts the extra revenue towards many other programs and then tells us that there won't be enough in the future for programs like social security - programs that are fully self-funded. See the following link to a good summary of where the money is spent: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/ Data suggest that our federal tax revenue is insufficient to support the current level of government spending. Yet while politicians continue to tell us that taxes are too high, and maybe they are too high, but few of them are inclined to lower spending. The arithmetic is inescapable. If we want to pay less tax and at the same time curb the growth of the national debt, the federal government must cut spending. If we want our government to maintain the same level of spending without incurring additional debt, then we need to collect more in federal taxes. But how would you change the tax laws (not the spending) to balance the budget - would a flat, regressive, proportionate, or progressive rate structure fix the issues? Would simplifying the tax code and not providing for the needs of constituents or economic conditions fix the issues? Do you think that the supply side economic theory really works where if you lower tax rates there is an increase in tax revenue? Explain how your solution would work.