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During the year 2000, the government collected 2,025,000,000,000 (2 trillion, 25billion) income and outlays totaled 1,789,000,000,000 (1 trillion, 789 billion) for a total surplus of 236,000,000,000 (236 billion). Refer you to page 122 out of 123:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1040--2001.pdf
In 2008, the government collected 2,524,000,000,000 (2 trillion, 524 billion) and had outlays totaling 2,983,000,000,000 (2.983 trillion). Refer to page 90 out of 92:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1040a--2009.pdf
In 2011 the government collected 2,303,000,000,000 (2.303 trillion) and had outlays of 3.603 trillion. Refer to page 93 of 96:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040a.pdf
So there you have it:
2000 - 2.025 trillion federal income and 1.789 trillion federal spending
2008 - 2.524 trillion federal income and 2.983 trillion federal spending
2011 - 2.303 trillion federal income and 3.603 trillion federal spending
Now closely examine the pie chart for fiscal year 2011. In this chart you can see that "Law enforcement and general government" accounts for only 2% of spending. Roughly half of the sequester comes out of that 2%. The other half comes from national defense which in this chart shows 24% though it's important to note that includes verteran's affairs and they're excluded from the sequester. Also excluded are the 37% social security, medicare, and other retirement, net interest on the debt, and most social programs (food stamps and such).
It's important to understand how the sequester works. When you hear a claim that "lines will be long at the airport", before you completely discount this you need to understand how the sequester works. Congress wrote IN THE LAW that federal agencies will have NO AUTHORITY to prioritize important operations over less important ones. In other words, maybe they've got a stack of supplies and they don't need to order any for 6 months so they would LIKE to put that money into paying people's wages to keep them on the job. The sequester prevents this. They'll be forced to spend their entire supply budget on supplies they don't need and don't want. It's a 9% across the board cut on all areas. In other words, Congress has mandated that the actual TSA agents, food inspectors, etc have a 9% budget cut necessitating unpaid days off for the workers.
Now consider the small part of the budget this actually impacts (again, consider that 2% slice of the chart), I find it absolutely amazing when people talk about the "bloated government" in need of cuts then claiming claiming that these cuts to the most efficient and lowest funded portion of government is all that helpful. The debt will not be controllable without both increased taxes and a change to medicare and social security. Until the government is willing to address the coming tidal wave of retirement age boomers, all the republican's are doing is lip service to the tea party and the democrats seem unwilling to address medicare and social security as well. The elderly vote and neither party is willing to change a thing.
My solution, return taxes to the Clinton era - ALL OF THEM even for the middle class. Raise the early retirement age for Social Security to 65 and regular social security retirement to 68 (current it's 62 and 65). Raise the eligibility age of medicare to 68. Means test them. Problems solved.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1040--2001.pdf
In 2008, the government collected 2,524,000,000,000 (2 trillion, 524 billion) and had outlays totaling 2,983,000,000,000 (2.983 trillion). Refer to page 90 out of 92:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1040a--2009.pdf
In 2011 the government collected 2,303,000,000,000 (2.303 trillion) and had outlays of 3.603 trillion. Refer to page 93 of 96:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040a.pdf
So there you have it:
2000 - 2.025 trillion federal income and 1.789 trillion federal spending
2008 - 2.524 trillion federal income and 2.983 trillion federal spending
2011 - 2.303 trillion federal income and 3.603 trillion federal spending
Now closely examine the pie chart for fiscal year 2011. In this chart you can see that "Law enforcement and general government" accounts for only 2% of spending. Roughly half of the sequester comes out of that 2%. The other half comes from national defense which in this chart shows 24% though it's important to note that includes verteran's affairs and they're excluded from the sequester. Also excluded are the 37% social security, medicare, and other retirement, net interest on the debt, and most social programs (food stamps and such).
It's important to understand how the sequester works. When you hear a claim that "lines will be long at the airport", before you completely discount this you need to understand how the sequester works. Congress wrote IN THE LAW that federal agencies will have NO AUTHORITY to prioritize important operations over less important ones. In other words, maybe they've got a stack of supplies and they don't need to order any for 6 months so they would LIKE to put that money into paying people's wages to keep them on the job. The sequester prevents this. They'll be forced to spend their entire supply budget on supplies they don't need and don't want. It's a 9% across the board cut on all areas. In other words, Congress has mandated that the actual TSA agents, food inspectors, etc have a 9% budget cut necessitating unpaid days off for the workers.
Now consider the small part of the budget this actually impacts (again, consider that 2% slice of the chart), I find it absolutely amazing when people talk about the "bloated government" in need of cuts then claiming claiming that these cuts to the most efficient and lowest funded portion of government is all that helpful. The debt will not be controllable without both increased taxes and a change to medicare and social security. Until the government is willing to address the coming tidal wave of retirement age boomers, all the republican's are doing is lip service to the tea party and the democrats seem unwilling to address medicare and social security as well. The elderly vote and neither party is willing to change a thing.
My solution, return taxes to the Clinton era - ALL OF THEM even for the middle class. Raise the early retirement age for Social Security to 65 and regular social security retirement to 68 (current it's 62 and 65). Raise the eligibility age of medicare to 68. Means test them. Problems solved.
Grover NorquistVerified account @GroverNorquist 
ya America...