What are they thinking - maybe they're not

[Guns4Fun]

Read this article please.

I don't get it - federal tax revenue is down 44% from last year but unemployment is only being stated at under 10% how is this possible?

Also, if federal revenue is down, why are they continuing to spend like drunken sailors (sorry sailors).

It is obvious that the country has been in trouble for a while - but when everyone is hurting why are they (.gov) still pursuing VAT at 10% and cap and trade? Why don't they just reduce the budget? I mean when I have less money, I spend less money. We are going to have a 1.7 TRILLION dollar deficit in 2009 alone. Why don't we hold them accountable? How do we stop them? Even when we write and call our "leaders" they ignore us. What is the next step?

I think we are truly screwed. Their solution (.gov) to the deficit is to raise taxes so people have even less money for themselves. Look how that worked out in MD. when they added the millionaire tax. The only problem is - is that with cap and trade and VAT, there is no other state to hide in.


Here is the article

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...nue-down_N.htm

IRS tax revenue falls along with taxpayers' income


By John Waggoner, USA TODAY

Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion, or 34%, in April vs. a year ago — the biggest April drop since 1981, a study released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research says.

When the economy slumps, so does tax revenue, and this recession has been no different, says Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the AIER and author of the study. "It illustrates how severe the recession has been."

For example, 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago.

"These are staggering numbers," Lynch says.

Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years.

"It's one of the drivers of the ongoing expansion of the federal budget deficit," says John Lonski, chief economist for Moody's Investors Service. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.7 trillion budget deficit for fiscal year 2009.

The other deficit driver is government spending, which, the AIER's report says, is the main culprit for the federal budget deficit.

The White House thinks that tax revenue will increase in 2011, thanks in part to the stimulus package, says the report from AIER, an independent economic research institute. But it warns, "Even if that does happen, the administration also projects that government spending will be so much higher each year that large deficits will continue, and the national debt held by the public will double over the next 10 years."

The government may have a hard time trimming spending to reduce the deficit when the recession ends. The 77 million Baby Boomers— those born in 1946 through 1964 — will start tapping their federal retirement benefits soon, which means increased government outlays for Social Security and Medicare.

"It will be doubly difficult for federal government to reduce expenditures and narrow the deficit as rapidly as they did following previous recessions," Lonski says. At the end of the last major recession, in 1981, Boomers were in their 30s. Their incomes were expanding, as was their appetite for goods and services.

The Boomers now are in their 50s and 60s and unlikely to keep increasing incomes for long, which means that revenue from income taxes could flatten in the next few years. Also, Lonski says, they are more likely to save for retirement than spend — and consumer spending is a big driver of the economy.

"The American consumer led us out of previous recessions with some semblance of gusto," Lonski says. "They're too old to do it now."

[camper]

The only logical conclusion I can come to, is that the .gov really believes the Mayan prophecy that the earth will end in 2012 and is therefore spending money like a millionaire who knows they won't wake up in the morning.

camper

[wa3ra]

Except that according to Mayan Prophecy, the fifth cycle ends, and the sixth cycle starts at moonrise of that day, just as it has five times before.


Man, will that be a fiduciary hangover!

[camper]

Man, will that be a fiduciary hangover!

Yeah...for US

Me and someone else at work were just talking about how screwed we would be if China all of a sudden said to us "Hey...you guys owe us a proverbial ass-load of money, and we want to collect."

camper

[fingers80002]

Read this article please.

I don't get it - federal tax revenue is down 44% from last year but unemployment is only being stated at under 10% how is this possible?

Also, if federal revenue is down, why are they continuing to spend like drunken sailors (sorry sailors).

It is obvious that the country has been in trouble for a while - but when everyone is hurting why are they (.gov) still pursuing VAT at 10% and cap and trade? Why don't they just reduce the budget? I mean when I have less money, I spend less money. We are going to have a 1.7 TRILLION dollar deficit in 2009 alone. Why don't we hold them accountable? How do we stop them? Even when we write and call our "leaders" they ignore us. What is the next step?

I think we are truly screwed. Their solution (.gov) to the deficit is to raise taxes so people have even less money for themselves. Look how that worked out in MD. when they added the millionaire tax. The only problem is - is that with cap and trade and VAT, there is no other state to hide in.


Here is the article

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...nue-down_N.htm

IRS tax revenue falls along with taxpayers' income


By John Waggoner, USA TODAY

Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion, or 34%, in April vs. a year ago — the biggest April drop since 1981, a study released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research says.

When the economy slumps, so does tax revenue, and this recession has been no different, says Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the AIER and author of the study. "It illustrates how severe the recession has been."

For example, 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago.

"These are staggering numbers," Lynch says.

Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years.

"It's one of the drivers of the ongoing expansion of the federal budget deficit," says John Lonski, chief economist for Moody's Investors Service. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.7 trillion budget deficit for fiscal year 2009.

The other deficit driver is government spending, which, the AIER's report says, is the main culprit for the federal budget deficit.

The White House thinks that tax revenue will increase in 2011, thanks in part to the stimulus package, says the report from AIER, an independent economic research institute. But it warns, "Even if that does happen, the administration also projects that government spending will be so much higher each year that large deficits will continue, and the national debt held by the public will double over the next 10 years."

The government may have a hard time trimming spending to reduce the deficit when the recession ends. The 77 million Baby Boomers— those born in 1946 through 1964 — will start tapping their federal retirement benefits soon, which means increased government outlays for Social Security and Medicare.

"It will be doubly difficult for federal government to reduce expenditures and narrow the deficit as rapidly as they did following previous recessions," Lonski says. At the end of the last major recession, in 1981, Boomers were in their 30s. Their incomes were expanding, as was their appetite for goods and services.

The Boomers now are in their 50s and 60s and unlikely to keep increasing incomes for long, which means that revenue from income taxes could flatten in the next few years. Also, Lonski says, they are more likely to save for retirement than spend — and consumer spending is a big driver of the economy.

"The American consumer led us out of previous recessions with some semblance of gusto," Lonski says. "They're too old to do it now."

Silly, it's the new O math...........

[eXceLon]

I don't get it - federal tax revenue is down 44% from last year but unemployment is only being stated at under 10% how is this possible?

Unlike personal income taxes, which are paid on your entire income, corporate income taxes are only paid on profits. That makes taxes on corporate profits much more sensitive to swings in the economy.

[Eugene V. Debs]

Unlike personal income taxes, which are paid on your entire income, corporate income taxes are only paid on profits. That makes taxes on corporate profits much more sensitive to swings in the economy.

Correct. That and unemployment figures are artificially low for a variety of reasons.

That being said, this spending has been wholly irresponsible-- nothing but corporate welfare-- companies take the money that's supposed to be to save jobs and continue to shutter businesses and outsource work to China and Mexico anyways.

Guns4Fun had it half right about it being like a drunken sailor spending money. It's like a drunken sailor on shore leave borrowing money from all of his friends promising he'll get them porno-style sex with some runway-model quality escorts, and instead he brings over one cracked-out, toothless tranny to give them hand-dookers. Then said sailor says he needs even more money so he can get the real hot escorts next time.

[ScaredOnce]

It's like a drunken sailor on shore leave borrowing money from all of his friends promising he'll get them porno-style sex with some runway-model quality escorts, and instead he brings over one cracked-out, toothless tranny to give them hand-dookers. Then said sailor says he needs even more money so he can get the real hot escorts next time.

I'd do whatever it takes and swear subservience to you for ever (until 21Dec12, of course...) in order to see/hear you say that on CNN Money.



hahah awesome.

[Perkascene]

Correct. That and unemployment figures are artificially low for a variety of reasons.

That being said, this spending has been wholly irresponsible-- nothing but corporate welfare-- companies take the money that's supposed to be to save jobs and continue to shutter businesses and outsource work to China and Mexico anyways.

Guns4Fun had it half right about it being like a drunken sailor spending money. It's like a drunken sailor on shore leave borrowing money from all of his friends promising he'll get them porno-style sex with some runway-model quality escorts, and instead he brings over one cracked-out, toothless tranny to give them hand-dookers. Then said sailor says he needs even more money so he can get the real hot escorts next time.

I need some bailout money to fix my rep button.

[pyld]

Me and someone else at work were just talking about how screwed we would be if China all of a sudden said to us "Hey...you guys owe us a proverbial ass-load of money, and we want to collect."

That's a mutually assured destruction situation. If China starts dumping the US debt (and thus our interest rates have to rise rapidly), the consumption engine that buys about 40 percent or thereabouts of what China makes will collapse. China's economy is predicated on double-digit growth.

Despite their bluster, they won't pull that trigger because of the subsequent impact it would have on the Chinese economy.

Besides which--why do you think China buys US debt? It's to ensure that the US consumption engine keeps running and buying Chinese exports.