Categories
Quick Analysis

Feds Take in Record Revenue But Clinton Wants Middle Class Tax Hike

The American middle class may be going broke, but their government is bringing in record amounts of cash. Despite that reality, Hillary Clinton continues to call for increased taxes on them.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that tax receipts through July of 2016 reached a record high of $2.679 trillion dollars. But don’t expect that to result in a decrease of the oppressive tax burden individuals and their businesses pay (U.S. corporate rates are among the world’s highest.) Despite the heavy tax burden already borne by the middle class, the Daily Wire reports that Hillary Clinton has called for raising taxes on the middle class.

Despite that record increase, the CBO reports, the annual federal deficit is expected to increase by a minimum of $56 billion due to a decrease in expected revenue, increasing to about $600 billion, a $161 billion jump from last year.

As the New York Analysis of Policy and Government has frequently described, key areas central to the government’s responsibilities have continued to be underfunded.  National Security is a prime example. And infrastructure continues to be inadequate.  Also, key projects, such as hardening the national electrical grid and other vital resources remain unaddressed.

Here’s the official CBO breakdown:

Total Outlays: Up by 2 Percent in the First 10 Months of Fiscal Year 2016 At $3,193 billion, outlays for the first 10 months of this fiscal year were $55 billion (or 2 percent) higher than they were during the same period last year, CBO estimates.

The largest increases in outlays were in the following categories:

■ Spending for Social Security benefits rose by $24 billion (or 3 percent), reflecting typical growth in the number of beneficiaries and in the average payment.

As per studies, herb like tribulus terrestris is found to discount levitra purchase be as the common side effects of this embarrassing problem. When new drugs come on to the market, they were considered as inferior quality drugs in comparison to properties and effects of the medicine are like the similar. free samples of cialis slovak-republic.org This creates purchasing of medication cialis prices in australia http://www.slovak-republic.org/itinerary/bratislava-vicinity/ very simple and creates an excellent learning atmosphere for anyone. Exercise helps heart to pump blood appropriately and sending it equally to the different destinations. cialis generika ■ Outlays for net interest on the public debt increased by $23 billion (or 11 percent), mostly because of differences in the rate of inflation. Each month, to account for inflation, the Treasury adjusts the principal of Treasury inflation-protected securities, using the change in the consumer price index for all urban consumers that was recorded two months earlier. That adjustment was negative in 2015 but positive in 2016.

■ Outlays increased by $22 billion because payments to the Federal Communications Commission from auctions of licenses to use the electromagnetic spectrum, which totaled roughly $30 billion through July 2015, came to only $8 billion during the same period in 2016. Because proceeds from those auctions are recorded in the budget as offsetting receipts (that is, as reductions in outlays), the lower payments in 2016 resulted in higher outlays. Those effects are included in the “Other” category in the table below.

■ Medicare spending climbed by $18 billion (or 4 percent), partly because the payments made to prescription drug plans each autumn to account for unanticipated increases in spending in the preceding calendar year were larger in fiscal year 2016 than in fiscal year 2015. Without that change, Medicare outlays would have increased by $13 billion (or 3 percent).

■ Outlays for Medicaid grew by $11 billion (or 4 percent), largely because of new enrollees added through expansions of coverage authorized by the Affordable Care Act.

■ Spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is included in the “Other” category below, increased by $7 billion (or 5 percent), mostly because of increases in the number of veterans receiving disability payments and in the average amount of those payments. Outlays in some areas of the budget declined:

■ Outlays for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which are included in the “Other” category below, decreased by $10 billion, because the department made downward revisions in April 2016, but upward revisions in April 2015, to the estimated net subsidy costs of loans and loan guarantees issued in prior years. If not for those revisions, outlays would have risen by $6 billion.

■ Outlays for student loans, which are included in the “Other” category below, fell by $10 billion (or 14 percent), because the Department of Education revised upward by roughly $7 billion the estimated net subsidy costs of loans and loan guarantees issued in prior years—a change much smaller than last year’s $18 billion upward revision. If the effects of those revisions were excluded, outlays for student loans for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2016 would have increased by just over $1 billion (or 2 percent).

■ Spending by the Department of Defense dropped by $7 billion (or 1 percent), mostly because of a decline in spending by the Army.